Campaign-free day for Italian voters

About one-third of Italy's electorate was estimated to be undecided a day before voting begins in the national election. Voters spent yesterday considering whether to choose conservative frontrunner Silvio Berlusconi or his centre-left rival Walter Veltroni.

Media tycoon Berlusconi, appearing on one of his own television channels just before a ban on campaigning began at midnight on Friday, pledged to abolish car and motorcycle tax - if the Treasury had the cash.

He clashed with programme host Enrico Mentana and tried to grab extra air time to explain to the 6.8 million viewers how to cast their ballots today and tomorrow.

"He made me look really bad, I'm very upset," an angry Berlusconi said as he left the studio. "I only wanted to explain how to make the cross on the ballot paper but he stopped me. I didn't want to finish the campaign like this."

Berlusconi, 71, has challenged the government to overhaul the ballot papers, which he said could be confusing. Veltroni, Rome's 52-year-old former mayor who is running for the Democratic Party, used a final rally in the city's Piazza del Popolo on Friday to deliver a stirring speech.

Appearing on television just before Berlusconi, he stressed his campaign theme, that he was the candidate of change.

Political analysts say about 30 per cent of Italians will decide how to vote at the last minute and Berlusconi gave a figure of 32 per cent of the electorate as still uncommitted. About 47 million Italians are eligible to vote.

In his last moments of air time, the conservative leader urged centre-right voters not to cast their ballots for the Christian Democrats or the far-right 'Destra' party, saying the only useful vote would be for his People of Freedom party.

Berlusconi had a lead of between five and nine percentage points in the last permitted opinion polls two weeks before the vote.

The electoral system meant it was difficult to win a majority in the Senate, where Romano Prodi's two-seat lead caused his centre-left coalition to collapse in January. This will also restrict the next government's room to manoeuvre.

In a fresh blow to Berlusconi, a Sicilian ally and member of the Senate, Marcello dell'Utri, was linked in media reports on Saturday to an investigation into suspected ballot fraud by the mafia involving votes by Italians abroad.

Massimo Franco, a columnist for the newspaper Corriere della Sera, said this could 'cast a shadow of fraud' over the election.Dell'Utri denies any wrongdoing.

Disillusioned voters have complained there is little to choose between the two main political groups as both promise to cut taxes to try to rescue the economy from recession.

Rome resident Luca Priori said yesterday he was not going to vote. "It is my personal protest," he said. "I don't have any faith in Italian politics or the outcome of the elections."

Valentina Criscimanni, shopping in Rome, said she would be making a protest vote: "I am planning to go to the polling station to try to make it clear on the ballot that I feel none of the candidates represents me."