Bye, Bye Berlusconi.

[techs]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh...et=/portal/2006/04/10/ixportaltop.html

Voting has finished in Italy's general election, and early exit polls suggest that centre-left leader Romano Prodi will be the new Italian prime minister, beating incumbent Silvio Berlusconi.

A poll by the Nexus research institute indicated that Mr Prodi's alliance would win between 50 and 54 per cent of the vote in both the lower house and the Senate upper house of parliament.



Interestingly Italys involvement in Iraq was not an issue since Berlusconi has set a firm date for Italian withdrawal.
This is interesting in that Bushes American foreign policy has caused a huge backlash with voters in Europe and South America turning leftward in increasing numbers.
It seems England is our only remaining ally in Iraq and that seems to be a function of Blairs popularity on other issues keeping him in office.
I guess the Post 9-11 mentality of the world is America needs to be confronted and voters are electing anti-American politicians.

 

[lozina]

I'll wait for the official results.

Don't forget Poland!!!

 

[Forsythe]

Originally posted by: techs
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh...et=/portal/2006/04/10/ixportaltop.html

Voting has finished in Italy's general election, and early exit polls suggest that centre-left leader Romano Prodi will be the new Italian prime minister, beating incumbent Silvio Berlusconi.

A poll by the Nexus research institute indicated that Mr Prodi's alliance would win between 50 and 54 per cent of the vote in both the lower house and the Senate upper house of parliament.



Interestingly Italys involvement in Iraq was not an issue since Berlusconi has set a firm date for Italian withdrawal.
This is interesting in that Bushes American foreign policy has caused a huge backlash with voters in Europe and South America turning leftward in increasing numbers.
It seems England is our only remaining ally in Iraq and that seems to be a function of Blairs popularity on other issues keeping him in office.
I guess the Post 9-11 mentality of the world is America needs to be confronted and voters are electing anti-American politicians.

Don't forget denmark! 😛
We've got like 500 soldiers down there.

And it's brilliant that berlusconi has fallen, i cannot imagine how a man like that got elected. He's so horrible at politics, when italy was the leader of EU, he showed up to the meetings completely unprepared. Prodi is a professor, he did a good job being in the EU, his only weakness is that he doesn't have that speakers way Berlusconi has.But he's more than able to "save" italy imo.

 

[jlmadyson]

Berlusconi Overtakes Prodi in Italian Election

April 10 (Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi overtook former European Commission President Romano Prodi in Italian elections and now leads in voting for both houses of parliament, projected results showed. The final outcome is too close to call.

Berlusconi had a narrow advantage of 0.3 percentage point in voting for the Chamber of Deputies that would give him 340 seats in the 630-seat house, projections based on a partial count of votes showed. Berlusconi's coalition also held a narrow majority in the Senate.

Initial exit polls showed Prodi winning the Chamber and a 20-seat majority in the Senate. Italians voted using a new proportional voting system similar to the one that produced 52 governments in 48 years until it was abandoned in 1994.

Official counting of the votes continues. With a third of the votes for the Chamber counted, that tally gives Prodi a lead over Berlusconi with 52 percent to 47 percent.

 

[techs]

Originally posted by: jlmadyson
Berlusconi Overtakes Prodi in Italian Election

April 10 (Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi overtook former European Commission President Romano Prodi in Italian elections and now leads in voting for both houses of parliament, projected results showed. The final outcome is too close to call.

Berlusconi had a narrow advantage of 0.3 percentage point in voting for the Chamber of Deputies that would give him 340 seats in the 630-seat house, projections based on a partial count of votes showed. Berlusconi's coalition also held a narrow majority in the Senate.

Initial exit polls showed Prodi winning the Chamber and a 20-seat majority in the Senate. Italians voted using a new proportional voting system similar to the one that produced 52 governments in 48 years until it was abandoned in 1994.

Official counting of the votes continues. With a third of the votes for the Chamber counted, that tally gives Prodi a lead over Berlusconi with 52 percent to 47 percent.

Well, I'll be. Looks like he may hold on.

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

Official counting of the votes continues. With a third of the votes for the Chamber counted, that tally gives Prodi a lead over Berlusconi with 52 percent to 47 percent.

That story is confusing . . .

The actual tally favors Prodi but the projection gives it to Berlusconi. It seems like the initial exit polls currently mirror the actual vote tally.

 

[Forsythe]

I would call that a dead race, still too small an advantage to tell.

 

[techs]

Originally posted by: BaliBabyDoc

Official counting of the votes continues. With a third of the votes for the Chamber counted, that tally gives Prodi a lead over Berlusconi with 52 percent to 47 percent.

That story is confusing . . .

The actual tally favors Prodi but the projection gives it to Berlusconi. It seems like the initial exit polls currently mirror the actual vote tally.

No wonder Italy has gone thru so many governments.
Its a pretty weird system.

 

[jimkyser]

Originally posted by: BaliBabyDoc

Official counting of the votes continues. With a third of the votes for the Chamber counted, that tally gives Prodi a lead over Berlusconi with 52 percent to 47 percent.

That story is confusing . . .

The actual tally favors Prodi but the projection gives it to Berlusconi. It seems like the initial exit polls currently mirror the actual vote tally.

I might have to do with how the PM is actually elected. It's the members of parliament that elect him. If his party has more members elected than the other guy's party, he wins. If Prodi wins big in some parliamentary races and loses narrowly in others, he could win the popular vote and still not be elected PM. Kind of like what happened to Al Gore in 2000.

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

It's hard to believe this is what Italy wants for its future . . .

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.

Then again the other side has its warts as well . . .

Prodi, 66, was making his comeback bid with a potentially unwieldy coalition of moderate Christian Democrats, Greens, liberals, former Communists and Communists.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: jimkyser

Originally posted by: BaliBabyDoc

Official counting of the votes continues. With a third of the votes for the Chamber counted, that tally gives Prodi a lead over Berlusconi with 52 percent to 47 percent.

That story is confusing . . .

The actual tally favors Prodi but the projection gives it to Berlusconi. It seems like the initial exit polls currently mirror the actual vote tally.

I might have to do with how the PM is actually elected. It's the members of parliament that elect him. If his party has more members elected than the other guy's party, he wins. If Prodi wins big in some parliamentary races and loses narrowly in others, he could win the popular vote and still not be elected PM. Kind of like what happened to Al Gore in 2000.

Wasnt our country early in its life also setup this way? Where congress would basically appoint the president?

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

Critics contended that Berlusconi, instead of helping the economy, used his comfortable majority in Parliament to push through laws protecting his business interests and helping him in his years of judicial woes.

Now that sounds familiar . . .

Berlusconi contends that the laws benefit all Italians and that he has been targeted by left-leaning prosecutors.

Ditto that one . . .

Berlusconi depicted Prodi as a front-man for Communists in a campaign to damage Italian democracy.

Our version usually uses code words like "special interests"

Italians were voting under a proportional system, thanks to a law pushed through by Berlusconi's government to increase the chances his smaller allies would win seats in Parliament.

Yep, we all need more fascist and xenophobes in positions of power.:roll:

 

[jimkyser]

Originally posted by: Genx87

Originally posted by: jimkyser

Originally posted by: BaliBabyDoc

Official counting of the votes continues. With a third of the votes for the Chamber counted, that tally gives Prodi a lead over Berlusconi with 52 percent to 47 percent.

That story is confusing . . .

The actual tally favors Prodi but the projection gives it to Berlusconi. It seems like the initial exit polls currently mirror the actual vote tally.

I might have to do with how the PM is actually elected. It's the members of parliament that elect him. If his party has more members elected than the other guy's party, he wins. If Prodi wins big in some parliamentary races and loses narrowly in others, he could win the popular vote and still not be elected PM. Kind of like what happened to Al Gore in 2000.

Wasnt our country early in its life also setup this way? Where congress would basically appoint the president?

Yes, I believe he was elected by the Senate. I think it was the 12th ammendment that changed it to the current system.

http://www.superkids.com/aweb/pages/features/netporn/amndmnts.htm

Don't worry about the 'netporn' in the above URL. It's totally work and family safe. Interesting choice of folder names for an educational site for kids.

 

[Lemon law]

What kind of idiot is Berlusconi?-----he had to see a close election was coming----dare I say its not too late?
This is a job for Diebolt.

 

[ntdz]

Originally posted by: techs
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh...et=/portal/2006/04/10/ixportaltop.html

Voting has finished in Italy's general election, and early exit polls suggest that centre-left leader Romano Prodi will be the new Italian prime minister, beating incumbent Silvio Berlusconi.

A poll by the Nexus research institute indicated that Mr Prodi's alliance would win between 50 and 54 per cent of the vote in both the lower house and the Senate upper house of parliament.



Interestingly Italys involvement in Iraq was not an issue since Berlusconi has set a firm date for Italian withdrawal.
This is interesting in that Bushes American foreign policy has caused a huge backlash with voters in Europe and South America turning leftward in increasing numbers.
It seems England is our only remaining ally in Iraq and that seems to be a function of Blairs popularity on other issues keeping him in office.
I guess the Post 9-11 mentality of the world is America needs to be confronted and voters are electing anti-American politicians.

A huge leftward backlash? Who just won the election in Germany? The CHRISTIAN party. Who is on the ropes in France? Chirac.

 

[ntdz]

Originally posted by: techs
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh...et=/portal/2006/04/10/ixportaltop.html

Voting has finished in Italy's general election, and early exit polls suggest that centre-left leader Romano Prodi will be the new Italian prime minister, beating incumbent Silvio Berlusconi.

A poll by the Nexus research institute indicated that Mr Prodi's alliance would win between 50 and 54 per cent of the vote in both the lower house and the Senate upper house of parliament.



Interestingly Italys involvement in Iraq was not an issue since Berlusconi has set a firm date for Italian withdrawal.
This is interesting in that Bushes American foreign policy has caused a huge backlash with voters in Europe and South America turning leftward in increasing numbers.
It seems England is our only remaining ally in Iraq and that seems to be a function of Blairs popularity on other issues keeping him in office.
I guess the Post 9-11 mentality of the world is America needs to be confronted and voters are electing anti-American politicians.

Haven't you learned from 2004 that exit polls aren't right? 😉

 

[theeedude]

Originally posted by: ntdz

Originally posted by: techs
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh...et=/portal/2006/04/10/ixportaltop.html

Voting has finished in Italy's general election, and early exit polls suggest that centre-left leader Romano Prodi will be the new Italian prime minister, beating incumbent Silvio Berlusconi.

A poll by the Nexus research institute indicated that Mr Prodi's alliance would win between 50 and 54 per cent of the vote in both the lower house and the Senate upper house of parliament.



Interestingly Italys involvement in Iraq was not an issue since Berlusconi has set a firm date for Italian withdrawal.
This is interesting in that Bushes American foreign policy has caused a huge backlash with voters in Europe and South America turning leftward in increasing numbers.
It seems England is our only remaining ally in Iraq and that seems to be a function of Blairs popularity on other issues keeping him in office.
I guess the Post 9-11 mentality of the world is America needs to be confronted and voters are electing anti-American politicians.

Haven't you learned from 2004 that exit polls aren't right? 😉

That hasn't been proven, and I wouldn't be so sure that it was the exit polls that weren't right.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: senseamp

Originally posted by: ntdz

Originally posted by: techs
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh...et=/portal/2006/04/10/ixportaltop.html

Voting has finished in Italy's general election, and early exit polls suggest that centre-left leader Romano Prodi will be the new Italian prime minister, beating incumbent Silvio Berlusconi.

A poll by the Nexus research institute indicated that Mr Prodi's alliance would win between 50 and 54 per cent of the vote in both the lower house and the Senate upper house of parliament.



Interestingly Italys involvement in Iraq was not an issue since Berlusconi has set a firm date for Italian withdrawal.
This is interesting in that Bushes American foreign policy has caused a huge backlash with voters in Europe and South America turning leftward in increasing numbers.
It seems England is our only remaining ally in Iraq and that seems to be a function of Blairs popularity on other issues keeping him in office.
I guess the Post 9-11 mentality of the world is America needs to be confronted and voters are electing anti-American politicians.

Haven't you learned from 2004 that exit polls aren't right? 😉

That hasn't been proven, and I wouldn't be so sure that it was the exit polls that weren't right.

Yeah right, 02 wasnt any different. Exit polls are not an accurate way to declare victory.

 

[conjur]

Hmm...and something like 20-25% of Italians were voting on e-voting systems. Rather interesting exit polls swapped so drastically. Esp. considering polls before the election had Berlusconi down by several points.

 

[theeedude]

Originally posted by: Genx87

Originally posted by: senseamp

Originally posted by: ntdz

Originally posted by: techs
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh...et=/portal/2006/04/10/ixportaltop.html

Voting has finished in Italy's general election, and early exit polls suggest that centre-left leader Romano Prodi will be the new Italian prime minister, beating incumbent Silvio Berlusconi.

A poll by the Nexus research institute indicated that Mr Prodi's alliance would win between 50 and 54 per cent of the vote in both the lower house and the Senate upper house of parliament.



Interestingly Italys involvement in Iraq was not an issue since Berlusconi has set a firm date for Italian withdrawal.
This is interesting in that Bushes American foreign policy has caused a huge backlash with voters in Europe and South America turning leftward in increasing numbers.
It seems England is our only remaining ally in Iraq and that seems to be a function of Blairs popularity on other issues keeping him in office.
I guess the Post 9-11 mentality of the world is America needs to be confronted and voters are electing anti-American politicians.

Haven't you learned from 2004 that exit polls aren't right? 😉

That hasn't been proven, and I wouldn't be so sure that it was the exit polls that weren't right.

Yeah right, 02 wasnt any different. Exit polls are not an accurate way to declare victory.

But they may be an accurate way to measure voter intent. Whether the voter intent translates into election outcome depends on other factors. These are well known and commonly used statistical methods we are talking about. There is a chance that the exit poll is wrong, but with large enough sample size, it's highly unlikely, and even more unlikely that many exit polls in many different precincts have a large discrepancy from the vote count.

 

[Beowulf]

Originally posted by: conjur
Hmm...and something like 20-25% of Italians were voting on e-voting systems. Rather interesting exit polls swapped so drastically. Esp. considering polls before the election had Berlusconi down by several points.

Well I got this right off of BBC

Correspondents say exit polls in previous Italian elections have often turned out to be inaccurate.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4894584.stm

 

[maddogchen]

Remains too close to call. techs jumped the gun a bit.

 

[techs]

Originally posted by: maddogchen
Remains too close to call. techs jumped the gun a bit.

I was just posting because I saw it like in ten places.
I wonder, do they have Diebold voting machines in Italy?
Or just cr*ppy exit polls?
Because exit polls in the US are like, 99.8 percent correct.

 

[ntdz]

Originally posted by: senseamp

Originally posted by: ntdz

Originally posted by: techs
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh...et=/portal/2006/04/10/ixportaltop.html

Voting has finished in Italy's general election, and early exit polls suggest that centre-left leader Romano Prodi will be the new Italian prime minister, beating incumbent Silvio Berlusconi.

A poll by the Nexus research institute indicated that Mr Prodi's alliance would win between 50 and 54 per cent of the vote in both the lower house and the Senate upper house of parliament.



Interestingly Italys involvement in Iraq was not an issue since Berlusconi has set a firm date for Italian withdrawal.
This is interesting in that Bushes American foreign policy has caused a huge backlash with voters in Europe and South America turning leftward in increasing numbers.
It seems England is our only remaining ally in Iraq and that seems to be a function of Blairs popularity on other issues keeping him in office.
I guess the Post 9-11 mentality of the world is America needs to be confronted and voters are electing anti-American politicians.

Haven't you learned from 2004 that exit polls aren't right? 😉

That hasn't been proven, and I wouldn't be so sure that it was the exit polls that weren't right.

Do you have any proof to suggest otherwise? Is there any reason to believe otherwise?

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: senseamp

Originally posted by: Genx87

Originally posted by: senseamp

Originally posted by: ntdz

Originally posted by: techs
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh...et=/portal/2006/04/10/ixportaltop.html

Voting has finished in Italy's general election, and early exit polls suggest that centre-left leader Romano Prodi will be the new Italian prime minister, beating incumbent Silvio Berlusconi.

A poll by the Nexus research institute indicated that Mr Prodi's alliance would win between 50 and 54 per cent of the vote in both the lower house and the Senate upper house of parliament.



Interestingly Italys involvement in Iraq was not an issue since Berlusconi has set a firm date for Italian withdrawal.
This is interesting in that Bushes American foreign policy has caused a huge backlash with voters in Europe and South America turning leftward in increasing numbers.
It seems England is our only remaining ally in Iraq and that seems to be a function of Blairs popularity on other issues keeping him in office.
I guess the Post 9-11 mentality of the world is America needs to be confronted and voters are electing anti-American politicians.

Haven't you learned from 2004 that exit polls aren't right? 😉

That hasn't been proven, and I wouldn't be so sure that it was the exit polls that weren't right.

Yeah right, 02 wasnt any different. Exit polls are not an accurate way to declare victory.

But they may be an accurate way to measure voter intent. Whether the voter intent translates into election outcome depends on other factors. These are well known and commonly used statistical methods we are talking about. There is a chance that the exit poll is wrong, but with large enough sample size, it's highly unlikely, and even more unlikely that many exit polls in many different precincts have a large discrepancy from the vote count.

Well the last 3 elections in this country have seen exit polls crash and burn.

Bush was supposed to lose Florida in 00 according to the exit polls and he didnt.
In 02 the polls were all out of whack.
And in 04 the exit polls had Kerry winning but he ended up losing byu ~3.5 million votes.

I think they are cute to talk about and give the news people something to focus on but they dont seem to be very accurate with regards to how actual voter turnout goes.