Nexus will release projections for the Senate, stemming from the initial vote
count, at 4:30 p.m. (1430 GMT), and for the lower house at 6:30 p.m. (1630 GMT)
for the Chamber. The margin of error for the projections ranges from 3
percentage points for the first projection to 1 percentage point for the last.
A telephone survey of 10,000 Italian voters broadcast on SKY TG24 TV yielded
a similar picture as the Nexus polls. The Piepoli Institute assigned 52 percent
of the vote to Prodi's coalition in the lower Chamber while giving Berlusconi's
47 percent.
It predicted that in the 630-member Chamber, Prodi's forces would have at
least 340 seats while Berlusconi's would have at least 277. Its breakdown for
the Senate was 167 at least for Prodi's coalition and 142 at least for
Berlusconi's. The margin of error was put at approximately 2 percentage points.
Neither poll sampled Italian voters abroad, who were electing 12 deputies and
six senators.
Berlusconi, 69, a billionaire media mogul and the longest-serving premier
since World War II, failed to jump-start a flat economy during his tenure. He
founded a business empire that expanded to include Italy's main private TV
networks, the Milan soccer team, as well as publishing, advertising and
insurance interests.
He was battling to capture his third premiership with a center-right bloc _
an often squabbling coalition of his Forza Italia party, the former neo-fascist
National Alliance, pro-Vatican forces and the anti-immigrant Northern League.
Prodi, 66, was making his comeback bid with a potentially unwieldy coalition
of moderate Christian Democrats, Greens, liberals, former Communists and
Communists.