Italian election fiasco lambasted

Voters queueing at polling stations in Naples

ROME, Italy -- The Italian media has strongly criticised the chaos that accompanied voting at some polling stations across the country.

Voters had to wait up to six hours after polling booths were scheduled to shut at 10 p.m. (2000 GMT) in some instances on Sunday.

Reports said many elderly people were forced to return home without having voted.

Italian newspapers branded the incidents "an international embarrassment" and "an intolerable offence."

Calls were made for the interior minister Enzo Bianco to resign after it was revealed that his department had reduced the number of polling stations by a third compared to last year.

More than 80 percent of the eligible 49.5 million voters cast their ballot in the general election, the last being cast in the southern city of Reggio Calabria at 4 a.m. (0200 GMT).

Voters were choosing between the centre-right coalition led by media tycoon and former premier Silvio Berlusconi and centre-left leader and former Rome mayor Francesco Rutelli.

Bianco blamed the "massive turnout" for the voting backlog.

Rome's daily newspaper La Repubblica dubbed the election troubles "A scandal" in its headline.

It added, the episodes were "uncivilised electoral bottlenecks."

"It is not true that the turnout was exceptional, unexpected and unforeseeable," it said.

Turin's newspaper La Stampa, said: "The right to vote is not only the fundamental moment of a democracy but above all it is the first condition of a democracy.

"Yesterday, many Italian citizens were forced to give up the possibility of exercising this right.

"An intolerable offence was inflicted on them and on the Italian Republic.

"The Interior Minister is responsible for this and he should draw his own conclusions."

The backlog became so serious at one point, that despite the first exit polls being held back by an hour, they were still issued while people waited to vote -- leading some commentators to believe the voters could have been influenced.

In Naples a group of angry voters grabbed piles of unused ballot sheets and flung them around the room.

Paolo Graldi, editor of Rome's daily Il Messaggero, told national television the voting conditions were "disastrous."

Ferruccio De Bortoli, editor of Corriere della Sera newspaper, said the delay had made Italy "an international embarrassment."

La Repubblica
La Stampa
Il Messaggero Online

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