Near-final results of local elections in Sicily showed defeat for Premier Romano Prodi's centre-left coalition on Tuesday, with the opposition sweeping the main races including the one for Palermo.
As the last ballots were being counted in the Sunday-Monday vote, incumbent Palermo Mayor Diego Cammarata won a second five-year term with 53.5% and an 8% lead over his centre-left rival Leoluca Orlando.
However, Orlando, an anti-Mafia crusader who has twice served as Palermo mayor, renewed allegations of fraud and called for the vote to be annulled.
Cammarata, a member of opposition chief Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, dismissed Orlando's allegations as "sour grapes".
Some 2.2 million Sicilians were entitled to vote in the elections for 156 new mayors and a new provincial government in Ragusa in the south of the island, which is a centre-right stronghold.
Turnout was unusually high at more than 72%.
The opposition looked set to win 60% of the overall vote but this was less than it took last time round in 2001.
In the major races, Forza Italia's Mimmo Fazio swept to a second term in the northwest port of Trapani, garnering 64.7% of the vote, as did centre-right Ragusa provincial governor Franco Antoci, who was reconfirmed with 65%.
In Agrigento on the west coast of the island, a run-off looked likely although the opposition candidate was 7% ahead of his main centre-left opponent.
The centre right won in Agrigento in 2001 with 76%.
The centre left's most important victory was in the southern city of Gela, where hard-left Mayor Rosario Crocetta of the Italian Communists' Party remained in the saddle with 65%.
The opposition said the outcome was a "crushing defeat" for Prodi, even demanding the government's resignation.
Former premier Berlusconi, who was narrowly defeated in last year's general election, said that "this vote is an unequivocal message intimating the end of Prodi's government".
But Prodi dismissed the elections as a local affair, saying they were "not a national test".
Other members of the governing coalition said the opposition's "triumphalism" was "ridiculous".
Foreign Minister and Deputy Premier Massimo D'Alema said that "the situation confirms a non-positive fact, that the right prevails in Sicily".
Sicily has always supported Berlusconi. When he won the 2001 election, the billionaire media magnate's coalition took all of the 61 parliamentary seats up for grabs on the island.
Prodi faces a bigger test on May 27-28, when some 10 million Italians will be called to vote in local elections across the rest of the country.
The government's popularity has fallen since it came to power a year ago, with tax hikes, spending cuts, pension reform and coalition infighting denting public confidence in the alliance.
ORLANDO CALLS FOR FRESH ELECTIONS IN PALERMO.
Meanwhile, in Palermo, Orlando confirmed that he had asked Interior Minister Giuliano Amato for the mayoral vote to be voided.
He said a team of lawyers was "looking into the numerous irregularities which we have reported", adding: "I hope a full investigation is carried out into the ascertained fraud".
Orlando claims that many ballots were wrongly assigned to Cammarata.
He says that in one polling station, 200 ballots were found that had been completed by the same person using the same mark and a pencil that had not been supplied by voting staff.
But the head of the Sicilian regional government, centre-right heavyweight Salvatore Cuffaro, said that "everything under the sun has its moment and Orlando's political moment is over".
"A cycle has come to an end. It's time he realised it and accepts his defeat," said Cuffaro, who defeated Orlando in the 2001 battle for the regional government leadership.
Cuffaro was re-elected in 2006, despite being on trial for Mafia association.
