Italy vote overshadowed by killing

Romano Prodi

ROME - Former European Commission President Romano Prodi looked set to be crowned the Italian left's election candidate today but his moment of victory was marred by the Mafia-style killing of a local politician.

Turnout was high for Italy's first primary election vote, held by the centre-left opposition on Sunday to choose a candidate to run against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in general elections next spring.

But before the polls closed, police said two masked gunmen shot dead Francesco Fortugno, 54-year-old vice president of the regional government of Calabria in the south of the country, as he exited a polling station.

Politicians from across the political spectrum denounced the murder - the first of its kind in Calabria in 16 years - and Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said he would fly to the region early today.

"We are working on a response to this attack that will be decisive and forceful," the prosecutor in Locri where the shooting occurred, Giuseppe Carbone, was quoted by local agency ANSA as saying.

Early exit polls gave Prodi 75 per cent of the vote, a landslide victory over the six other candidates drawn from across the centre-left spectrum and far higher than anticipated.

Second place looked likely to be taken by veteran communist leader Fausto Bertinotti with some 14 per cent.

Turnout at the 10,000 polling booths also far exceeded expectations with organisers predicting more than 3 million voters by the time stations closed at 10 pm. (8am NZT), three times more than forecast.

Centre-left leaders said the success of the primaries had weakened Berlusconi and showed Prodi had won the country's backing to oust the billionaire media tycoon after his five years in power, Italy's longest government since World War 2.

"Today the voters have given a clear message. That the arrogance of the government will not succeed," Prodi said when the first results began arriving.

Berlusconi replied Prodi should enjoy his victory because it was the only one he was going to win.

Berlusconi's supporters denounced the vote as a farce and said it had been rendered meaningless by a change to the electoral system that the government looks certain to introduce before the 2006 ballot.

Opposition leaders say the reform, to be voted on in the Senate and which would usher in a complex version of proportional representation, was devised to keep Berlusconi in power.

Recent opinion polls forecast that the centre left would have secured a handsome victory under the old voting system, but would do less well if the change is approved because it puts more stress on the individual parties and less importance on coalitions.

Prodi, who defeated Berlusconi at the ballot box in 1996, is not a member of any political party.

This was allowed under the previous system and guaranteed him independence in dealing with his varied allies, but it is not allowed by the new text.

This means he must either sign up to a centre-left party, tying him to one of the many opposition factions, or create his own party, which would directly compete with his allies.

- REUTERS