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Either Berlusconi or Prodi wins Italian election
Berlusconi clings to power Vote projections in Italy indicate the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi may defy early predictions and cling to power in both houses of Parliament. Early TV exit polls suggested the centre-left opposition would win the Upper House or Senate. Left wing supporters were jubilant and Opposition Leader Romano Prodi was said to be preparing for a victory speech. But then early counting suggested Mr Berlusconi's right-wing coalition would hold on to the Lower House. TV stations are now predicting Italy's longest serving post-war government could actually win, defying opinion polls during the campaign. Italian poll is too close to call Italian Italian general election is getting to be too close to call with latest projections giving Silvio Berlusconi's conservative coalition a slender lead in both the Senate and the lower house of deputies. Exit polls and initial projections, however, had given the edge to the centre-left coalition led by Romano Prodi. Projections based on 95% of pollster Nexus's voting sampling gave Berlusconi's alliance 158 seats in the Senate against 151 for Prodi. However, with a margin of error of 1 to 3 percentage points, the majority was not assured, and six seats chosen by Italians voting abroad were unaccounted for in the projections. Prodi Claims Italian Election Victory; Recount Sought  Romano Prodi claimed victory in the Italian election, even though it won't be clear until later today whether he'll get a mandate to form a government. ``We won,'' Prodi said at 2:53 a.m. ``Now we must work together to unify this country.'' Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's spokesman, Paolo Bonaiuti, contested Prodi's victory claim and demanded a recount of the votes for the Chamber of Deputies. Final results showed Prodi's alliance taking control of the Chamber, winning by a margin of just 25,224 out of more than 38 million votes cast. Berlusconi's coalition held a one-seat lead in the Senate, with the results of six seats for Italians living abroad to be determined later today.
Posted by: Fred 2006-04-11 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=147969 |