Berlusconi denounces Italy election as fraudulent

ROME - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi today denounced what he called widespread fraud at Italy's general election and demanded his center-left rival Romano Prodi be stripped of victory.

Prodi immediately condemned Berlusconi's efforts to overturn the results of the April 9-10 election, the closest in modern Italian history, and his allies warned that the prime minister was stoking dangerous political tensions.

The stand-off between the leaders of Italy's two main coalitions pushed Europe's fourth largest economy into uncharted waters and toward a full-blown crisis.

"The election result has to change because there was widespread fraud," Berlusconi told reporters after meeting President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.

"There was fraud that doesn't go in all directions. It just goes one way," he added, suggesting that the alleged ballot box irregularities had all been at the expense of his alliance.

Prodi, attending a victory rally in his home city of Bologna in northern Italy, dismissed the allegation.

"We have won ... Berlusconi has to go," said Prodi, a former president of the European Commission whose victory has been acknowledged by France, Spain, Luxembourg and the European Commission but not Washington.

According to Interior Ministry data, the center-left won the election for the lower house of parliament by just 25,000 votes out of 38.1 million ballots cast.

Berlusconi earlier this week demanded a review of 40,000 disputed ballots that were not included in the final tally because of alleged errors in the way they were filled out.

Today, he suggested the problem might be much bigger, saying statements from 60,000 voting stations across Italy had to be checked "one by one". 

Checks on disputed ballots are routinely carried out by the authorities and these were expected to be completed by Friday.

The prime minister said he thought the review would take "several days" to complete.

Some of Berlusconi's allies applauded his move, but center-left leaders were unanimous in their condemnation.

"Berlusconi, stop poisoning Italy and delegitimising the Italians' vote," said Piero Fassino, head of the biggest leftist party, the Democrats of the Left.

A statement by center-left allies said: "Berlusconi must recognize the result of the polls and stop feeding this dangerous climate of tension."

The prime minister suggested on Tuesday that with Italy split down the middle by the vote, the center-left and centre-right should form a government of national unity to tackle the country's economic problems.

But the idea was dismissed out of hand by Prodi, who said on Wednesday he was already preparing to govern.

"It's not true that the country will be split forever. It is today, but we will put it back together again," he said.

Even without accusations of fraud, Italy faced at least a month of limbo before a new government can be sworn in.

Under the constitution, it is up to the head of state to nominate a new government after consultation with party leaders.

Prodi had wanted Ciampi to quickly name him prime minister but the president, whose term ends on May 18, believes it is the duty of his successor.

The new parliament is due to convene on April 28. The Senate, lower house and regional representatives will then vote on May 12-13 to elect a successor to Ciampi.

- REUTERS