By KUNA,
Roma : Italian voters continued casting their ballots here for the second and last day on Monday for early parliamentary elections.
The polls are mainly pitting the political heavyweight, former 72-year-old prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, against the 52-year-old centre-left leader, Walter Veltroni, amid great anticipation after voters decreased yesterday.
The ministry of interior declared that there are more than 2,000 ballot stations, distributed among 27 districts for electing members for the House of Representatives and 20 districts for the Senate. Doors opened for voters at 7 a.m and will close at 3 p.m., when vote counting will start.
Percentage of the voters yesterday hit 5.62 percent out of 126.47 million male and female voters, an obvious decline compared with the parliamentary election two years ago, where the proportion stood at 5.66 percent, the ministry said.
The ministry said that the votes counting process will commence as soon as the ballots are closed.
The elections today have drawn widespread concern and attention, after a week-long election campaign, excluding the last few days, and that was not the case in the four previous elections in the country since 1994.
This election is considered as the last chance for Berlusconi to win. It is the first test for the democratic party, established six months ago, and a challenge for Veltroni, where he is playing solo in the elections without his traditional allies from the left wings.
Recent media polls showed that Berlusconi’s popularity was higher by a small margin compared to that of his contender. However, observers forecast surprises with large blocs and parties competing this time.