The far-right party is projected to win 44.5% of the vote, far ahead of the conservative CDU on 18.5%. The AfD has hailed the result as a "historic outcome" and the charismatic leader in the state, Ulrich Siegmund, has refused to rule with any other party.
No far-right party has won control of a state in Germany since World War Two, and governing at state level would mean powers over policing, local education and culture.
Saxony-Anhalt has a small population of 2.1 million and the AfD in the state is assessed by domestic intelligence as "far-right extremist", a classification rejected by Siegmund.
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