Nearly A Third Of Italian Voters Still Undecided A Week Before Election

[HuffingtonPost]

ROME, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Five days before national elections  almost a third of Italians have yet to decide who to vote for or  are considering not voting at all, a survey showed on Tuesday,  highlighting uncertainty over the outcome.                

The poll in Corriere della Sera daily showed the proportion  of Italians undecided or tempted to abstain has declined from  51.5 percent in December but remains at a  significant 27.7  percent less than a week before the vote on Sunday and Monday.                

Final polls on Feb. 8, before a legal black-out period set  in, indicated that the centre-left Democratic Party would win a  lower house majority but will need to form a coalition with  outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti's centrist grouping.                

Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right alliance was about 6  percentage points behind the frontrunners. But the hefty  proportion of undecided voters means the outcome is still  unpredictable and the final days of campaigning will be crucial.                

Publication of polls is illegal in the two weeks leading up  to the Feb. 24-25 election but analysts are permitted to reveal  data on likely participation rates.                

Most of the undecided are middle-aged housewives or  pensioners with relatively low education levels, mainly living  in the south of Italy, and with little interest in politics,  pollster Renato Mannheimer of the ISPO institute said.                

"More than half of those who are currently undecided or  potential abstainers say they can't place themselves on the  right or the left," Mannheimer told the Milan daily.                

He added it was likely that many people who were yet to  decide would probably not vote, based on past electoral trends.                

But historical participation rates suggest about 5 million  people, or 10 percent of voters, will make up their minds in the  last few days, swayed by last-minute promises from party leaders  regardless of their place on the political spectrum, he said.                

Many polls over the last year have shown Italians  disenchanted with a political class clinging to its privileges  as the euro zone's third biggest but chronically uncompetitive  economy descended deeper into crisis.        (Reporting By Catherine Hornby)

Via: HuffingtonPost