Judges check ballots as Italian election turmoil continues
The turmoil following the Italian election continued today after Premier Silvio Berlusconi denounced frauds in the vote count and said results that gave a narrow victory to his centre-left rival Romano Prodi would be overturned.
Judges were counting contested ballots, with at least their first reports expected later in the day.
Their check of 43,000 contested ballots was not expected to change the picture, but uncertainty loomed as Berlusconi demanded thorough checks of at least 60,000 polling stations – almost all of them – and over 1 million annulled ballots.
“At this point it is difficult not to fear a kind of ’Italian Florida,”’ leading Italian daily Corriere della Sera said today.
Several papers drew parallels with the 2000 US presidential race eventually won by US President George Bush.
Prodi insisted yesterday that his victory was safe and he had no fear of the results reversing.
Speaking hours later, Berlusconi showed he had no intention of conceding. “I’m confident,” Berlusconi said after an hour-long meeting with the Italian president. “The results must change.”
