Furious PM will not 'go home'(Berlusconi saying fraud and "vote-rigging" have robbed him)

Herald Sun ^ | 14 april 2006

[IrishMike]

ROME -- Italy's cliff-hanger election shows no signs of ending, with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi saying fraud and "vote-rigging" have robbed him of victory, while rival Romano Prodi maintains he won fair and square.

"(There was) so much vote-rigging, I am confident the result must change," said Mr Berlusconi, whose House of Freedoms bloc lost the election to Mr Prodi's Left-Centre Union coalition by a tiny margin. "The rigging was all in one direction: it was absolutely not evenly spread.

"We have to check the records of 60,000 polling stations one by one.

"The result must change because there was too much fraud in several parts of Italy."

The billionaire leader has refused to concede defeat and denounced what he called "a great many irregularities" in the voting on Sunday and Monday.

Mr Prodi brushed aside the flamboyant Prime Minister's fraud claims and suggested that Mr Berlusconi, in office for five years, was having an "identity crisis".

"In spite of his defeat he continues to cast doubt on the legality of our victory. I can assure you there is no doubt about our victory," Mr Prodi said.

"We won and it is useless for Berlusconi to try to delay. Berlusconi must go home."

[IrishMike]

Ain't this like a Philadelphia or Chicago election ?

[Hurricane Andrew]

I hope that they uncover and confirm as many irregularities (i.e. FRAUD) as quickly as they can. If this drags out, it could be very bad for Italy. I'm still surprised that so many would vote for a blatant socialist/communist in Italy, fraud not withstanding.

[lqclamar]

Personally I'm sick and tired of the left wing media portraying Berlusconi as "flamboyant" or "eccentric" when Prodi is just plain nuts - 1000 times kookier than every gaffe of Berlusconi's career combined.

I'm continually shocked at how few people remember it, but Romano Prodi is the guy who claimed a Ouija Board told him where communist kidnappers were holding then Italian PM Moro back in the late 70's. In all likelihood Prodi's real source was the KGB, which it is long rumored he was working for. Bottom line: Prodi is batsh&t nuts and a left wing extremist to boot. He is a very dangerous man to allow get elected, which is why all the communists and leftist media support him.

Does anyone doubt that if the situation were reversed and Prodi was the one trailing by a 10th of a percentage point and calling for a recount that the media would be pumping the "let every vote count" mantra?

[isom35]

vote-rigging? thank goodness that could never happen here...........