Foreign Correspondence

[otraque]

turning into a nailbiter per latest.
Polls Now Say Italy Race Too Close to Call

Monday April 10, 2006 8:01 PM


AP Photo ROM121

By FRANCES D'EMILIO

Associated Press Writer

ROME (AP) - Exit polls indicated Monday that the Italian parliamentary election pitting center-left economist Romano Prodi against flamboyant billionaire Premier Silvio Berlusconi was too close to call. Projections showed Berlusconi's coalition leading in the Senate, but the two sides running neck-and-neck in the lower Chamber of Deputies.

Based on 86 percent of pollster Nexus' sampling, Berlusconi's alliance won 157 Senate seats, compared with Prodi's 152. The margin of error for the sample was between 1 and 3 percentage points.

Also, the projections did not account for six seats chosen by Italians abroad.

Earlier projections showed Prodi set to beat Berlusconi. Prodi postponed a news conference after the latest projections were released.

The Senate and lower chamber of parliament have equal powers, and any coalition would have to control both in order to form a government. Berlusconi and Prodi have said new elections should be called if neither side controls both houses.