Discarded ballots add fuel to imbroglio in Italy

ROME — Italy's hotly disputed election is fast turning into a rerun of the Florida 2000 fiasco, with the discovery of a pile of ballots dumped in the garbage on the outskirts of Rome and the politicians continuing to bicker over who won the photo-finish poll.

Rome's authorities immediately ordered an inquiry into the circumstances under which 18 ballot boxes were found by a passer-by stacked beside municipal garbage cans near a school that had served as a polling station.

They also said the 608 valid, marked ballots, contained in boxes clearly inscribed with the words "Ministry of Interior," would not have changed the election result and probably had been mistaken by the school's cleaners for trash.

Rome Procurator Giovanni Ferrara told reporters the discarded votes already had been counted and would have no effect on the still uncertain outcome of the election, which left-of-center leader Romano Prodi says he won by a wafer-thin margin of 0.6 percent.

A recount of the trashed ballots, however, found that the tally for the center-right coalition led by incumbent Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is alleging widespread fraud, had been undercounted by one vote, according to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.

With Prodi ahead by just 25,000 votes out of more than 38 million cast, Berlusconi's camp is demanding a review of the result, insisting that every vote counts.

"There have been countless swindles all over Italy. I am confident that the result will be overturned," Berlusconi said outside his Rome headquarters.

"You are not rid of me yet!"

The bookish Prodi, whose studious manner contrasts sharply with the flamboyance of his opponent, has already begun acting as Italy's prime minister-elect, telling reporters he will begin forming his Cabinet in coming days.

But Berlusconi's supporters say the result has yet to be certified by Italy's high court and it could be days or even weeks before all the disputes are settled.

A new center-left government led by Prodi could bring changes in Italy's relationship with the United States, over the war in Iraq and other foreign-policy issues. The first test could come when Prodi is asked to push for the arrest and extradition of 22 purported CIA agents who have been accused by an Italian prosecutor of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric from Milan as a suspected terrorist.

Berlusconi raised the relationship with the United States to a new level after taking office in 2001, calling President Bush "my friend," breaking with France and Germany by supporting the invasion of Iraq and sending 3,000 soldiers there after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Speaking to supporters in his hometown of Bologna on Wednesday evening, Prodi said when his Cabinet first meets, it would discuss a timetable for the pullout of troops, "because we did not want this war," according to Italian news agencies.

Additional information from The Associated Press