Posted on 04/10/2006 3:45:21 PM PDT by new yorker 77
ROME (AP) - Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's longest-serving premier since World War II, was locked in a battle for power Monday with center-left challenger Romano Prodi as vote projections from parliamentary election returns swung dramatically back and forth.
After a campaign dominated by economic issues, projections based on 98 percent of pollster Nexus' sampling of votes cast gave the flamboyant billionaire's center-right alliance 158 seats in the Senate compared to 151 for Prodi's coalition. But with a margin of error of 1-3 percentage points and six seats chosen by Italians voting abroad unaccounted for, the Senate majority was far from assured.
For the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house, 89 percent of the voting sample gave Berlusconi's alliance 49.8 to 49.7 percent for Prodi's coalition. No seat breakdown was given.
During his tenure, Berlusconi had strongly supported President Bush over Iraq despite fierce Italian opposition to the war. Prodi, an economist, said he would bring troops home as soon as possible, security conditions permitting. But the issue was largely deflated before the campaign began, when Berlusconi announced that Italy's troops there would be withdrawn by year's end.
The projections giving Berlusconi a narrow lead in both houses came just hours after exit polls predicted a slim parliamentary victory for Prodi. With such uncertainty, politicians from both camps appealed for restraint until final results were in.
"All day long we have called for caution and prudence," said Sandro Bondi, a top official in Berlusconi's Forza Italia party. "We have to wait for real results."
"We are in the moment of the maximum uncertainty," said Communist leader Fausto Bertinotti, a member of Prodi's coalition.
Prodi postponed a news conference after the projections were released, and his aides said the center-left leader would not make any statement until the vote count was final. Voter turnout was about 84 percent.
The Senate and lower chamber of parliament have equal powers, and any coalition would have to control both in order to form a government. Both center-left and center-right leaders have said if neither side controls both houses, new elections should be called.
"If there's a different majority between the Senate and the Chamber we need to go back to the polls," leading center-left lawmaker Luciano Violante said.
Even with a slim majority in parliament's houses, a coalition would officially win. But it would find it extremely difficult to pass legislation.
If parliament is split between the two coalitions, the president could try to name a government of technocrats at least until another election is held. He could also seek to fashion a coalition of left and right, but considering the bitter divisions among Italy's political parties, that seemed unlikely.
Berlusconi, a 69-year-old media mogul, was battling to capture his third premiership with an often squabbling coalition of his Forza Italia party, the former neo-fascist National Alliance, pro-Vatican forces and the anti-immigrant Northern League.
Prodi, 66, was making his comeback bid with a potentially unwieldy coalition of moderate Christian Democrats, Greens, liberals, former Communists and Communists.
Italians were mainly preoccupied by economic worries. Berlusconi failed to jump start a flat economy during his tenure, but promised to abolish a homeowner's property tax. Prodi said he would revive an inheritance tax abolished by Berlusconi, but only for the richest; he also promised to cut payroll taxes to try to spur hiring.
Still, the candidates seemed to hurl more insults at each other than comprehensive plans for turning around the economy.
The premier's critics have accused him of having used his coalition's comfortable majority in parliament to push through laws to protect his business interests. He founded a business empire that expanded to include Italy's main private TV networks, the Milan soccer team, as well as publishing, advertising and insurance interests.
Berlusconi, in turn, depicted Prodi as a front man for communists in a campaign to damage democracy.
The projections from actual vote returns were different from the results of exit polls.
Two Nexus exit polls issued within 45 minutes of the close of polls indicated that in voting Sunday and Monday, Prodi's coalition had garnered between 50 and 54 percent of the vote in both the upper and lower chambers of parliament, while Berlusconi's coalition had between 45 and 49 percent.
Both exit polls gave Prodi's Union coalition between 159 and 170 seats in the Senate, compared to 139 and 150 for Berlusconi's center-right alliance. The polls did not give an immediate breakdown for seats in the lower Chamber of Deputies.
Neither poll sampled Italian voters abroad, who were electing 12 deputies and six senators.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All right reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Let me go out on the limb and call it: Berlusconi wins!
Go Silivio Go!
Let me join you on that limb, papa. Weren't these clowns just telling us a few days ago that Berlusconi had no chance? As if we needed another reason to never trust the press.
Not necessarily a bad thing...
never trust the press
never trust the press
never trust the press
never trust the press
never trust the press
T'was worth repeating!
Democrats/Liberals/Socialists/Communists win exit polls. We win the elections.
Isn't Berlusconi a media king? I wonder whether he has any influence on the press.
I'll take that result any day. They just yell louder than we do and think that makes them a majority.
heehee. I look forward to the pictures of Italian leftists crying at campaign headquarters. We can put them up next to the pictures of crying US, Aussie, and Canadian leftists after their last elections.
Italians are morons if they elect the Communist stooge Prodi.
It's good to be King
Prodi declares victory. EU flags waving all over Rome. Arrivederci Berlusconi!!!
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