An Italian woman is preparing the ballots for the two day general election at a polling station in Rome, April 8, 2006.

    ROME, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Italians began voting for the two-day general elections at 8:00 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) Sunday morning.

    In the general elections, Italians will turn out to decide whether incumbent Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi or his leftist challenger Romano Prodi will be the next prime minister.

    Some 47 million Italians are eligible to vote in the elections, but it's hard to predict how many voters will cast their votes.

    Another 2.6 million Italians, living in four mega-constituencies, North America, Australia, Asia and Africa, are eligible to vote for the first time in Italian national elections.

    According to the Foreign Ministry, about 42.07 percent of eligible Italian voters abroad ended ballots on Thursday. The results will be released after voting ends in Italy.

    A total of 315 senators and 630 deputies will also be elected, including six senators and 12 deputies to be elected by an electorate of the 2.6 million Italians living abroad.

    The elections, which will last until local time 10:00 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Sunday and continue on Monday from 7:00 a.m. (0500 GMT) to 3:00 p.m. (1300 GMT), were held in accordance with the new elections law passed by the Italian parliament last year.

    Analysts believe that due to the fact that dozens of parties were participating in the elections, none of them is likely to obtain the majority of the votes.

    Berlusconi and Prodi would vote at their own hometown Milan and Bologna respectively on Sunday. Enditem

 Backgrounder:

    Italian center-left coalition's platform:

    ROME, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Italian Romano Prodi's center-left union alliance issued its election program, which highlights seven priorities.

    According to the local media, these are: economic growth, environment, family, employment, education, tax and foreign policy.

    The following are some of the key points:

¡¡¡¡Tax: One of the central planks is a 5-percent cut in payroll taxes and social security contributions paid by Italian businesses. The measure would cost the state at least 10 billion euros (about 12 billion U.S. dollars) a year.

    The program calls for a battle against tax evasion, vowing that a center-left government will approve no amnesties.

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