Italians face uncertain political future

Political uncertainty loomed in Italy after one of the country’s closest elections as centre-left leader Romano Prodi emerged the winner by a razor-thin margin and Premier Silvio Berlusconi refused to concede defeat and demanded a recount, alleging irregularities.

“Nobody now can say they have won,” said Berlusconi said yesterday, in his first comments since the election.

Prodi, who claimed victory earlier in the day, said he was not worried by a recount, describing Berlusconi’s complaints as “out of line.”

The back-to-back comments by the two candidates for premier capped a day of confusion since millions of Italians went to cast ballots on Sunday and Monday at the end of bitter campaign.

Official results by the Interior Ministry showed Prodi had won four of the six seats in the Senate elected by Italians living abroad, giving the centre-left leader the margin he needed to win both houses of Italy’s parliament.

In the 315-member Senate, official returns showed Prodi had won 158 seats to 156 by the centre-right, with one independent.

But Berlusconi, speaking of the vote abroad, said “there are many irregularities and therefore it’s possible that this is not a vote we can say is valid.”

Prodi can count on a comfortable majority in the lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, despite the narrowest of winning margins – 49.8% his coalition compared to Berlusconi’s 49.7%.

Thanks to a new, fully proportional electoral system pushed through by the conservatives against the centre-left’s opposition, the winning coalition in the lower house gets at least 340 deputies, or 55% of seats, regardless of the margin of its victory.

But with a margin of about 25,000 over the 38 million votes cast, Berlusconi called for a recount, echoing demands from his camp.

“We won’t hesitate to recognise the political victory for our adversaries, but only once the necessary legal verification procedures have been completed,” he said, adding he had full confidence about the checks.

The procedures could take weeks.

After a night of swinging projections and with a dramatic vote count still under way, Prodi vowed he would form a strong government able to run a country mired in zero-percent economic growth and almost evenly split by the vote.

But with a narrow margin and a potentially unwieldy coalition prospects of a stable government remained dim.

“We have won after an intense battle, but we have a majority both in the Senate and in the lower house that allows us to govern,” Prodi said.

With a high voter turnout of about 84%, analysts talked of a deeply split country, and expressed uncertainty over what might happen next.

“Italy is a country that has been divided since 1948,” said analyst Edoardo Novelli, referring to the landmark Italian election between the US and Vatican-backed Christian Democrats and the Soviet-supported Communists.

“But it has never been so on the line,” added the professor of political communications at Milan University.

Berlusconi became Italy’s longest serving premier since World War II thanks to his five years in power.

Despite a tumultuous tenure, including the loss of some ministers along the way and a Cabinet reshuffle last year, the conservative media mogul delivered a sense of stability to the country.

The Interior Ministry stressed yesterday that the results must still be confirmed by Italy’s highest court, and that parliament’s election committees would have to rule on any challenges.