Cliffhanger

Wee hours update (Repubblica): After a cliffhanger of a night in which election results flip-flopped several times, the vote counting is over, giving a majority to Prodi in the House and to Berlusconi in the Senate. In the Senate, Berlusconi's coalition got 50.21% of the vote, but only 155 seats with the remaining 154 going to Prodi.

In the House, Prodi won by 25 thousand votes to reach 49.8% but he was awarded a total of 340 seats as a bonus to the victor. At this point, the vote of expat Italians will be decisive: 6 Senate seats and 12 House seats will be attributed. But the count is very slow and delayed. The result will be announced at noon on Tuesday.

Update: Prodi wins the Senate, too. By one vote seat! Or not? Apparently the Italian expat vote, which Prodi is projected to have won 2-to-1, is the decider.

It's official...Romano Prodi's coalition withs the House by 27,000 votes, despite the mulehead effect.