The Interior Ministry confirmed on Friday that the number of disputed ballots in Italy's knife-edge general election was around 5,000, far fewer than originally believed and insufficient to overturn the victory of centre-left leader Romano Prodi.
The ministry, which has been criticised by the opposition over its handling of the election results, said that "the number of contested ballots has been reduced from 43,028 to 2,131 for the House and from 39,822 to 3,135 for the Senate".
It said that the "first, provisional calculation of the disputed ballots was the result of material error". It attributed the mistake to a mix-up in some provinces between disputed slips and ballots that had been officially declared void or blank.
But the ministry added that the election figures were "still provisional" and that the electoral authorities responsible for examining the disputed ballots had yet to provide their "definitive decisions".
Prodi, who has claimed victory for his centre-left coalition and has been congratulated by various heads of government including British Prime Minister Tony Blair, said that "our victory is confirmed".
"They are carrying out the necessary checks and as was obvious, these checks have not led to any new developments," the former European Commission chief said. Prodi emerged the winner in the April 9/10 election by a tiny majority of 25,000 votes in the House and two seats in the Senate.
But Berlusconi challenged his win, saying that more than 40,000 disputed ballot slips needed to be reviewed before a winner could officially be declared.
The billionaire media magnate also launched charges of election rigging which he subsequently toned down.
