ROME, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Italy's center-left coalition led by Pier Luigi Bersani has shown a lead in the parliamentary election, but it is still not clear if it will be able to form a working government, according to the early vote count of the interior ministry.
The center-left has gained 31.7 percent in the lower house, beating ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's center-right and other candidates, according to the ministry's updating count as of 18:30 GMT.
The count also shows that in the senate, the center-left gained 32.3 percent against Berlusconi's 29.1 percent, while losing key battleground regions including Lombardy and Campania. Latest calculations have predicted that Berlusconi will have 122 seats in the senate compared to Bersani's 121 seats.
Bersani has the option of forming an alliance with outgoing prime minister Mario Monti's centrist party, and early projections show that Monti will only gain 9 seats. Bersani's coalition needs 158 seats in the senate for a majority.
If the final outcome remains consistent with the early count, the crucial election may turn into a deadlock in which a coalition government may be paralyzed by opposition parties even if it is formed.
According to Italy's electoral laws, the party or the coalition that wins the most votes in the lower house can be assigned to form a new government. But a prime minister needs the support of both the lower house and the senate to govern, which have equal law-making powers.
About 75 percent of registered voters went to the polls, 5 percent lower than the turnout in the 2008 election.
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ROME, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Neither center-left Pier Luigi Bersani nor center-right Silvio Berlusconi will obtain a majority in the Senate, according to interior ministry's official vote count, pushing Italy's crucial parliamentary election into a rare political gridlock that has rocked global markets.
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