April 13 (Bloomberg) -- Italians began voting today to choose a new government with polls suggesting Silvio Berlusconi may be elected for a third time as prime minister to manage a $2.4 trillion economy on the brink of recession.
Berlusconi, 71, and Democratic Party leader Walter Veltroni, 52, are competing for the premiership just two years after the previous vote. Elections to choose Italy's 62nd government since World War II were called three years early after Prime Minister Romano Prodi's government collapsed in January.
``The situation isn't good,'' said Salvatore Zecchini, a professor of economic policy at Rome's Tor Vergata University. ``Whoever wins will have to do something for the economy, but the measures will be modest and they won't be able to revive growth.''
The International Monetary Fund forecast April 9 said the Italian economy, Europe's fourth biggest, would expand just 0.3 percent, the slowest of the more than two dozen ``advanced economies'' included in its World Economic Outlook report. Italy is Europe's most-indebted country, and ranks last in labor productivity among the 30-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Turnout Lower
More than 47 million Italians are eligible to vote. Ballot booths opened today at 8 a.m. and close at 10 p.m. Voting continues tomorrow from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Italians who are least 18 years old can vote for the Chamber of Deputies, while those who are 25 or older vote also for the Senate.
Turnout at 12 p.m. was slightly lower than two years ago, with 15.2 percent voting compared with 16.4 percent in 2006 with a third of the 8,101 sections studied reporting, the Interior Ministry said .
Berlusconi held a lead in opinion polls of between 6 and 9 percentage points, according to polls conducted before March 29. No polls are allowed during the two weeks preceding the vote.
Both candidates have made similar pledges of tax cuts and increased social and public works spending to revive confidence and growth in an economy that some analysts say may already be in recession.
Berlusconi, the billionaire media magnate, entered politics 14 years ago promising to bring about an economic miracle. In his last stint as prime minister between 2001 and 2006, Italy slipped into recession three times, the budget deficit reached the highest in the European Union and the debt increased. This time around he has toned down the rhetoric, saying he couldn't ``perform miracles'' given the current climate.
Veltroni, the former Rome mayor, has painted himself as the candidate of change. In his final campaign rally in Rome's Piazza del Popolo he called on Italians to ``turn the page'' on the aging political class represented by Berlusconi. He even adopted Barak Obama's ``Yes, We Can'' slogan -- ``Si Puo Fare'' in Italian -- for the campaign and was backed by popular figures such as George Clooney and soccer star Francesco Totti.
Senate Race
All polls during the campaign predicted Berlusconi would win a comfortable majority in the Chamber of Deputies, the race in the Senate will likely be much tighter. The seats in the upper house are distributed through 20 regional contests on a proportional basis, so smaller parties will win seats and that will narrow the difference between the two main blocs.
Berlusconi changed the voting rules prior to the 2006 election when he trailed in the polls to make it harder for his challenger to build a stable government. Prodi's administration fell after he lost his one-seat majority in the upper house. Now the law may come back to haunt Berlusconi, with some polls indicating that Veltroni could win the Senate. The two houses of parliament, which have equal powers, have never been controlled by rival parties.
Contemporaneously with parliamentary elections, there will be voting on eight provincial governments and 423 city governments, including Rome, the capital. Sicilians and residents of Friuli Venezia Giulia will be called to vote to choose regional governments.
No comments:
Post a Comment