MOSCOW, January 21 (RIA Novosti) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right coalition has lost a key state election, with preliminary results giving the center-left opposition the edge by a small margin, media reported.

According to preliminary official results of Sunday's state election in Lower Saxony, the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) and the Green Party received 69 seats in the state legislature, while Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their coalition partners the Free Democrats (FDP) gained 68, Deutsche Welle reported on Sunday.

The vote in the region of eight million people in Germany’s northwest is seen as a bellwether for national elections, due in September, the BBC reported.

As Merkel, 58, seeks another four-year term as chancellor, her CDU coalition has lost a number of state elections. However, the chancellor and her party are riding high in national polls.