Last day of campaigning before Italian general election

Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi and his centre-left opponent Romano Prodi planned final political rallies today, the last day of campaigning before a general election on Sunday and Monday.

Prodi chose Rome’s central Piazza del Popolo for his final campaign stop, while Berlusconi was heading south to Naples to try to rally supporters to give him another five-year mandate.

The campaign has been particularly bitter, with each side hurling insults at the other.

Yesterday, Berlusconi said election observers were needed to prevent fraud at the ballot boxes. Prodi dismissed the idea, saying Berlusconi shouldn’t fear any fraud because “he already controls everything.”

Some 47 million Italians are eligible to vote in the balloting, as well as some 2.6 million Italians living abroad who can vote for the first time in a national election.

Italy’s stagnant economy has figured as a key campaign issue.