Italy heads to the polls

Rutelli and Berlusconi have fought a bitter campaign

ROME, Italy -- Italy is going to the polls to elect its 59th government since World War II.

With millions of voters apparently still undecided, the population spent Saturday reflecting on whether they prefer a media magnate as their next premier, or five more years of center-left government.

Voting began early on Sunday morning and ends later in the day. Projections on first returns are expected on Monday morning.

By law, Sunday's vote to renew Parliament had to be preceded by a day off from campaigning.

The law also banned publication of opinion surveys in the last two weeks before elections.

AUDIO CNN's Alessio Vinci: A bitterly contested campaign 508K/47 sec. AIFF or WAV sound     COUNTRY PROFILES At a glance: Italy Provided by CountryWatch.com

The last polls, in late April, showed that former Rome Mayor Francesco Rutelli, 46, had chipped away at Silvio Berlusconi's wide lead but that the 64-year-old billionaire businessman was still ahead.

Those polls also indicated that millions of the 49.5 million eligible voters hadn't made up their minds yet about who they want to lead what will be Italy's 59th government since the end of World War II.

Rutelli, a former mayor of Rome, is promising tax breaks, job development and anti-crime measures.

Rutelli told CNN he was confident of victory. "I will win the elections. I will (create an) Italy, beloved all over the world for its beauty, history, art, but also for its technological, industrial capability. Italy will be an important partner and not a problem for Europe and the world.

"We are in a very close, tight race and we are going to win at the last lap." Berlusconi's closing campaign TV appearance on one of his networks showed a blowup of an electoral "contract" he said he was signing with Italians.

In the "contract," he pledged to reduce taxes and crime, raise pensions, create 1.5 million jobs and increase public works projects.

With little difference on issues like fighting crime and unemployment, and with relatively scant domestic concern by many over the prospect of a media baron at the helm of a democracy, Rutelli's last day of campaigning, on Friday, on Berlusconi's political allies.

One of these allies is Umberto Bossi, whose anti-immigrant stand has earned him comparisons to Austria's far-right leader Joerg Haider.

Bossi's Northern League has advocated secession for Italy's affluent north.

It was Bossi's betrayal in 1994 that brought down Berlusconi's coalition when the magnate had been premier for barely eight months.

"An Italy in the hands of Bossi would be an Italy that wouldn't be accepted in Europe," Rutelli said.

Berlusconi's forces in this election made a campaign alliance in Sicily with the Tricolor Flame, an openly neofascist party, while making a national pact with the formerly neofascist National Alliance party.

The centre-left boasted during the campaign of having guided Italy, through restrained spending, into the charter club of countries using the new common currency, the euro.

While both men pledged tax relief for a country where the middle-class can pay more than 40 percent in income tax, Rutelli claimed that Berlusconi's vow to increase pension payments while drastically slashing taxes would jeopardise Italy's participation in the euro.

Berlusconi's rivals have also tried to make capital out of his troubles with prosecutors, who nearly a decade ago began pursuing him in corruption and bribery investigations.

"Do we deserve this man?" headlined the communist daily Il Manifesto across a half-page photo of Berlusconi with his hands raised like an orchestra director's.

Il Giornale, a conservative Milan daily whose board of directors include Berlusconi's brother, ran this banner headline: "Berlusconi: a vote against the lies."

Berlusconi has depicted himself as a victim of prosecutors he claims sympathise with the left.

If Berlusconi wins, he will control state television and effectively dominate nearly all of Italy's major television markets.

His business empire includes the nation's three main TV networks, and as head of government he could wield influence over the three networks of RAI state television.

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