Media tycoon and centre-right coalition leader Silvio Berlusconi early this morning seemed set to emerge as the overwhelming winner of yesterday's Italian general election.
Both exit-poll predictions and the first results indicated that Mr Berlusconi's House of the Liberties coalition will have a comfortable working majority.
Exit-poll predictions suggest that Mr Berlusconi's coalition has claimed more than 50 per cent of the vote in both Houses while the centre-right leader's own party, Forza Italia, seems set to emerge as by far the strongest in the land with a staggering 30 per cent plus of the vote, perhaps 10-14 per cent stronger than the major party on the left, ex-communist Democratic Left.
In a vote that had been termed as a "moral referendum" on the controversial personality of Mr Berlusconi, a significant majority of Italians would appear to have rejected the reservations raised by the centre-left on the media tycoon's much documented judicial problems and his potential "conflict of interest" when in government office.
Forza Italia Senator Enrico La Loggia indicated the mood in the victorious centre-right camp last night when saying on state TV RAI: "This is a great victory not just for the centre-right but . . . above all for the trustworthiness of Mr Berlusconi."
While the centre-right was preparing to celebrate a notable victory, the defeated centre-left was urging caution, arguing that recent history had shown exitpoll predictions to be extremely unreliable. Several commentators also suggested that the centre-left had been badly penalised by the decision of hard-line Marxist "Rifondazione Communista" to run alone and not as part of an electoral pact with the centre-left Olive coalition as it did in the 1996 elections won by the Olive.
Immediate analysis of yesterday's vote was hampered by the fact that many polling stations closed long after the intended time of 10 p.m., slowing up the election count. A high voter turnout, a 30 per cent reduction in the number of polling stations and the fact that in many regions Italians were also voting in local elections led to scenes of chaos at many polling stations in the major cities.
Delays of up to two hours were commonplace while many frustrated citizens eventually gave up, tearing up their electoral registration cards and declining to vote. Such was the confusion in central Rome that citizens were still casting their votes at 1.30 this morning.
If both the earliest results and exit-poll indications are confirmed by the final results due this morning, then at least three trends have emerged. Firstly, and most importantly, there is the overwhelming vote of elector confidence in Mr Berlusconi, notwithstanding reservations expressed in Italy and by many foreign news commentators.
Secondly, the vote appears to confirm that Italians have embraced bi-polar democracy at the expense of the smaller independent parties.