Recount leaves Italy facing the unknown

JUDGES began checking thousands of contested ballots yesterday, with Italian politics in turmoil following Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s demand for a recount of rival Romano Prodi’s narrow parliamentary election victory.

Official returns gave Mr Prodi’s centre-left coalition the majority in both houses of parliament in the elections but the margin was a mere 25,000 votes in the lower Chamber of Deputies.

Mr Prodi insisted his victory was safe. “There is nothing to worry about; we are serene,” he said in Bologna.