Final day of voting in Italy’s ill-tempered elections

ITALY: Italians widely fed up with politics as usual and hurting in the pocketbook were wrapping up two days of voting on Monday in elections that look set to return conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi to power for a third time.

Exit polls were expected soon after polling stations close at 3:00 pm (1300 GMT), and preliminary projections at around 7:00 pm.

Now 71, media tycoon Berlusconi is taking on 52-year-old former Rome mayor Walter Veltroni in the polls to elect Italy’s 63rd government in as many years against the backdrop of a stumbling economy and chronic political instability.

Returning to the polls just two years after electing the unwieldy coalition of centre-left leader Romano Prodi, voters balked at the choices on offer for pulling Italy out of its political and economic doldrums.

As the end of the first day of polling on Sunday, turnout stood at 62.5 percent, down four percentage points from the same juncture two years ago, the interior ministry said.

Rome, Monday, AFP