(ANSA) - BERLINO, SEP 14 - According to early forecasts in the Rhineland municipal elections, based on exit polls, the CHD remains the leading party with 34 percent, registering a slight decline of 0.3 percent. Afd rises to 16.5 percent with a jump of 11.4. The Spd is expected to come in at 22.5 percent, with a loss compared to the last municipal elections of 1.8 percent: a very negative result for the party. The Greens stop at 11.5%, down 8.5%, Linke up slightly with 5.5% (+1.7%). Turnout grows: according to early data it should be 58.5%; five years ago it stopped at 51.9%. In North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, 16-year-olds can vote in municipal elections. And according to the first exit polls, the youth vote (16-24 years old) did not reward the ultra-right, quite the contrary. In this age group first party is the Cdu with 23%, the Spd with 20%, then the Linke with 18%, the Greens with 13% and only fifth force Afd with 11%. Moreover, with 58.5 percent the highest voter turnout since 1994 is to be defined, when, however, the municipal elections were held at the same time as the general elections. In Gelsenkirchen, a city of more than 250,000 inhabitants and former stronghold of the SPD, a runoff is likely between the Social Democratic candidate, who scored 34.6 percent, and Afd's Norbert Emmerich. Nearly 50 percent of the ballots have currently been counted. This may be the largest city where Afd can aim to win the highest city government seat, although all other parties are likely to divert their votes to the Social Democrats. In Cologne, one of the four German cities with a population of more than 1 million, it is still 14 percent of the polls but only Greens (22.7 percent), Spd (22.6 percent) and Cdu (18.5 percent) remain in the lead, here Afd confirms a good result (over 15 percent) but is far from the runoff. In Bonn, the former capital of West Germany, when 16 percent of the polling stations have been counted, a runoff seems to be looming between Cdu (38.2 percent) and Greens (30.9 percent), cut off by Spd getting only 9 percent and Afd having to settle for 7.2 percent. In Duesseldorf, the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, it will be a runoff between the outgoing burgomaster of the Cdu and the candidate of the Greens. Ballots are also likely in Dortmund between the Spd, which is running the outgoing burgomaster, and the Cdu, and in Bielefeld. (ANSA).