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The German capital Berlin is set for its first elected woman mayor as Franziska Giffey and her Social Democrats beat the Greens, according to interim figures published by the state electoral commission early Monday.

Berlin, a city of of 3.7 million inhabitants, has only once been ruled by a woman for a short time. From 1947 to 1948, the Social Democrat Louise Schroeder headed the administration as acting mayor, dpa reports.

With some 99 per cent of votes counted, the SPD was out in front with 21.4 per cent of the vote, while the Greens and their top candidate, Bettina Jarasch, came in at 18.9 per cent.

Berlin is currently governed by a coalition government led by the SPD along with the hard-left Die Linke (The Left) and the Greens.

Governing Berlin Mayor Michael Mueller of the SPD had decided not to run again for the state parliament, leaving the race open for who runs the left-leaning city.

The 43-year-old Giffey, a former civil servant, had already made a name for herself in the capital as mayor of the district of Neukoelln.

From 2018 until May this year, Giffey was federal minister for family affairs. She resigned because of a plagiarism scandal surrounding her doctoral thesis, and her doctorate was revoked by the Free University of Berlin in June.