Candidates Chase Italian Vote Abroad

Candidates Chase Italian Vote Abroad

ROME -- Millions of brand new voters, many of whom have never set foot in Italy and barely speak Italian, could decide a tight race between Premier Silvio Berlusconi and challenger Romano Prodi.

For the first time, citizens who live abroad have the right to vote by mail in elections for the Italian Parliament thanks to a 2001 law that was one of the first pieces of legislation from Berlusconi's conservative government.

The law also created four huge electoral districts to represent Italians who live overseas in Parliament. Worldwide, 18 lawmakers will be chosen to represent this new constituency, 12 new seats in the Chamber of Deputies and six in the Senate.

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With Berlusconi a few points behind Prodi in opinion polls and the gap virtually unchanged for weeks, politicians of all stripes have been crisscrossing continents and flying across oceans in a last-minute scramble to win the loyalties of these 3.5 million voters abroad.

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http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/03/22/252.html