Berlusconi hanging on in Italian election cliffhanger

THE fate of Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s longest-serving premier since World War Two, hung in the balance last night as vote projections from parliamentary election returns swung dramatically back and forth.

After a campaign dominated by economic issues, projections based on 98% of pollster Nexus’ sampling of votes cast gave the flamboyant billionaire’s centre-right alliance 158 seats in the Senate compared to 151 for challenger Romano Prodi’s coalition. But with a margin of error of one to three 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% of the voting sample gave Mr Berlusconi’s alliance 49.8% to 49.7% for Mr Prodi’s coalition. No seat breakdown was given.