Prodi faces early test in local elections

Italians began voting yesterday in two-day local elections seen as an early test of new centre-left Prime Minister Romano Prodi's popularity.

Mr Prodi, who says he has a strong mandate despite a knife-edge victory over Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right in last month's general elections, is looking for a more clear-cut triumph this time with more than 1,260 cities and towns up for grabs.

The spotlight was focused on four big cities, including Rome and Milan, as well as a one-day gubernatorial vote in Sicily where Mr Prodi's candidate was the sister of an anti-Mafia magistrate murdered in 1992.

"This is the Prodi government's first test of the confidence that they have, to show whether their victory was a real one or a fluke," said James Walston, a professor at the American University in Rome.

Polling in the two-day ballot closes this afternoon, with results expected later this evening. As of 7 p.m., some 35 per cent of voters had cast ballots, the Interior Ministry said.

For centre-right opposition leader former Prime Minister Berlusconi the local elections represent his first chance for revenge after losing the closest general election in Italy's post-war history.

Mr Berlusconi hopes a sound centre-left defeat in local polls will erode Mr Prodi's mandate, making it harder for him to serve out a full five-year term.

"With this vote on Sunday and Monday (we) moderates should send an eviction notice to this left, to the government and to this (parliamentary) majority which doesn't have a majority," Mr Berlusconi said at the close of campaigning on Friday.

Mr Prodi has promised to undo most of the policies of his predecessor, including electoral rules, labour flexibility, media regulation, and immigration and judicial reform.

The prime minister has been annoyed by Mr Berlusconi's refusal to admit defeat, saying "nobody duped him. He just lost a competition without any fraud or irregularity".

The outcome of the local polls appeared to be a foregone conclusion in the financial hub of Milan, a centre-right stronghold, while Rome's popular centre-left mayor, Walter Veltroni, also looked set to win re-election.

In Sicily, the centre-left candidate was Rita Borsellino, sister of anti-Mafia magistrate Paolo Borsellino, who was killed by a Mafia car bomb in 1992. But that was unlikely to be enough to swing a region where Mr Berlusconi's camp has scored big election wins in the past.

She has accused the centre-right of taking a position of non-aggression with the Mafia and "abandoning the fight" - charges her opponents reject as electoral propaganda.

"It's been a very enthusiastic campaign with two very different visions not just of politics, but of life," Ms Borsellino, 60, said after casting her ballot in Palermo.