Italian election: Review backs Prodi victory - by Tony Barber in Rome
Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s centre-right premier, faced defeat on Friday in his bid to overturn the election result that gave a slender victory to Romano Prodi and the centre-left opposition.Interior ministry officials said judges were inspecting only 5,266 contested ballot papers in the elections for the two houses of parliament, rather than 82,850 as anticipated immediately after the April 9-10 vote. Such a small-scale review all but ruled out the possibility that Mr Berlusconi’s government might be declared the winner instead of the opposition, whose margin of victory in the lower house was 25,000 votes.Mr Prodi, speaking in his home town of Bologna, said the judges’ review showed his victory was not in dispute. “They are continuing their checks, as is their duty. And as was obvious, the review isn’t leading to any change. Victory is confirmed,” Mr Prodi said.
Mr Berlusconi, who has mostly kept out of sight since the election, continued to avoid making a formal concession of defeat. Instead, his office released a statement denouncing speculation that Forza Italia, the party he created out of his business empire in 1993-94 as a vehicle for his political ambitions, would be dissolved.
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