Election cliffhanger grips Italy
Early estimates suggest that turnout for the elections was high
Italy's general election is turning into an extremely close race, with early results pointing to a slender lead for PM Silvio Berlusconi.
Mr Berlusconi's centre-right coalition may narrowly retain control of both houses of parliament, according to projections from the Nexus pollsters.
Earlier, exit polls pointed to a narrow lead for his centre-left challenger, Romano Prodi.
Polling stations closed at 1500 (1300 GMT), after two days of voting.
The Nexus projections, carried on the state broadcaster Rai, gave Mr Berlusconi's forces 49.9% in the Chamber of Deputies (lower house), and Mr Prodi's bloc 49.6%.
For the Senate the projections gave Mr Berlusconi's bloc 158 seats and Mr Prodi's 151.
Another six Senate seats are for overseas constituencies, seven for life senators.
Correspondents say exit polls in previous Italian elections have often turned out to be inaccurate.
Berlusconi may win after all..... Hey, this is looking an awful lot like the last presidential election in the United States. Didn't the major news networks get it wrong by following exit polls? They called the vote in favor of Kerry, when in fact, Pres. Bush won. Maybe it is a case of no one really wanting to say who they voted for. That is why exit polls are notoriously wrong. Both Berlusconi and Bush are so "unhip" and "uncool" who would admit that the actually voted for either of them? Even though, in fact, they did. Are the media whores once again whipping up a story to keep us interested in what we may not really be interested in anyway? Hmmmm......
Time will tell and hopefully we will have an election result in the morning and Italy will have a new Premier, or, maybe not....
Me? I am off to finish packing and go to bed. This is my last post till I return from our holiday. I hope the Easter Bunny is generous to all and I will post photos of "Our Bahamian Adventure" when we return!
Ciao!
Krista
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