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| Italy election: Bersani's centre-left 'ahead in polls' | Italy election: Bersani's centre-left 'ahead in polls' |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Early exit polls from Italy's general election show a lead for the centre-left bloc led by Pier Luigi Bersani. | |
| The polls suggest Mr Bersani's alliance has taken around 34% of the vote for parliament's lower house, ahead of Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right group with 29%, Sky Italia reports. | |
| Beppe Grillo's protest movement is projected to take nearly 20% of votes. | |
| The two-day vote is seen as crucial for efforts to tackle Italy's economic problems, as well as for the eurozone. | The two-day vote is seen as crucial for efforts to tackle Italy's economic problems, as well as for the eurozone. |
| The election was called two months ahead of schedule, after Mr Berlusconi's party withdrew its support for Mario Monti's technocratic government. | |
| The first results based on partial vote counts are due in the next few hours. | |
| Coalition talk | |
| Shortly after voting ended at 15:00 (14:00 GMT), exit polls for both Sky and Rai television gave the centre-left a roughly 5.5-point lead in the lower house and a six-point lead in the Senate. | |
| Sky reported that the centre-left had 34.5%, the centre-right had 29%, Mr Grillo's Five Star movement had 19% and Mr Monti's bloc had just under 10%. | |
| If the exit polls are confirmed, they would echo the opinion polls prior to the election which made Mr Bersani's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) a consistent frontrunner to secure the lower house with nearly 35%. | |
| However, Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PdL) centre-right alliance may yet prevent Mr Bersani from winning an overall majority in the Senate, which is being fought on a region-by-region basis. | |
| Sky's exit poll indicates the two blocs are tied in Lombardy, a key region in Italy's rich industrial north. | |
| Control of the both the lower and upper houses of parliament is needed in order to govern. | |
| Many predict Mr Bersani, a former Communist, will seek to form a coalition with Mr Monti if he fails to win an outright majority. | |
| Mr Bersani has pledged to continue with Mr Monti's tough reforms, but suggests current European policy needs to do more to promote growth and jobs. | |
| The fiercely anti-establishment Five Star movement of former comedian Beppe Grillo drew wide and growing support during the campaign, and threatened to be the major upset for the election. |