Prodi: 'No fear of election results reversal'

Italy’s centre-left leader Romano Prodi said today he doesn’t fear a reversal of election results, insisting his victory is safe despite the demand of a recount by Premier Silvio Berlusconi.

Prodi emerged the winner in a closely-fought election, even though his razor-thin majority has brought back the prospect of political instability in a country known for its revolving-door governments.

Berlusconi has refused to concede defeat, alleging irregularities.

“I do not fear a reversal of the results,” Prodi said a day after official results by the Interior Ministry gave him the victory in the election.

“Our victory is safe,” he said. “There’s the possibility of governing for five years.”

Prodi said he had begun talks on selecting a Cabinet, holding a meeting with coalition parties earlier in the day.

Prodi did not give an estimate on when a government might take office, but played down the uncertainty caused by Berlusconi’s demands.

In Italy, it usually takes a few weeks to exhaust the procedures necessary for forming a government.

In this case, the matter is further complicated because the mandate of the president of the republic, who must give the nod to a new premier, expires in mid-May, and the current president has indicated he would leave the task to his successor.

Prodi again ruled out the possibility of a “grand coalition” between right and left proposed by Berlusconi.

“A grand coalition is not only extraneous to our program but it happens when no majority emerges from the elections,” Prodi said. “In this case, a majority came out.”

The election results still must be confirmed by Italy’s highest court, and parliament’s election committees also will have to rule on any challenges to the ballot.

But Berlusconi, making his first and so far only comments since the Sunday-Monday elections, insisted: “Nobody now can say they have won.”

On Wednesday, several ballot boxes carrying the symbol of the Interior Ministry were found in a rubbish bin. The ANSA news agency said the ballots had been filled out and their results communicated to the Interior Ministry.

In the 315-member Senate, Prodi’s coalition won 158 seats; the centre-right 156, and one independent was elected.

Berlusconi, referring to the vote of Italians abroad, which proved crucial in the Senate race, 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% for 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.

Prodi, a former premier and EU chief, claimed victory Tuesday while the vote count was still under way, drawing criticism from Berlusconi.

With a high voter turnout of about 84%, the election highlighted deep divisions in Italy, and analysts expressed uncertainty over the strength of a future government.

Berlusconi is Italy’s longest-serving premier since the Second World War, thanks to his five years in power. Despite a tumultuous tenure, the conservative media mogul brought some stability to the country.

Even if the result is confirmed, long-term prospects for Prodi look problematic: his coalition is seen as unwieldy because it is built on two mainstream parties but also includes a mixed group of smaller groups ranging from Catholics to communists.

Prodi has played down the divisions within his bloc, and vowed that his government would pass reforms needed to revive the country’s zero-growth economy.

“You underestimate the sense of responsibility of this coalition,” he told reporters, making a special mention of a Communist ally who toppled his first government in 1998 by withdrawing support after more than two years.

It is up to the president to give the leader of the winning coalition the mandate to form a government. President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi’s mandate ends in mid-May, and the new president must be elected by May 13.

Prodi said today that parliamentary negotiations on Ciampi’s successor would begin soon. He met the president for over an hour.

Ciampi’s office reiterated his intention to leave the task to his successor.

The new government would then have to win a vote of confidence in both houses of parliament, which under the Italian system have equal powers.