The turmoil following the Italian election continued today after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi denounced frauds in the vote count and said results that gave a narrow victory to his centre-left rival Romano Prodi would be overturned.
Judges were counting contested ballots, with at least their first reports expected later in the day.
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Their check of 43,000 contested ballots was not expected to change the picture, but uncertainty loomed as Mr Berlusconi demanded thorough checks of at least 60,000 polling stations - almost all of them - and over a million annulled ballots.
The stand-off between the leaders of Italy's two main coalitions pushed Europe's fourth largest economy into uncharted waters and toward a full-blown crisis.
Several Italian newspapers drew parallels with the 2000 US presidential race eventually won by US President George W. Bush. At this point it is difficult not to fear a kind of 'Italian Florida,"' leading daily Corriere della Sera said.
Mr Prodi insisted yesterday that his victory was safe and he had no fear of the results reversing.
Speaking hours later, Mr Berlusconi showed he had no intention of conceding. "I'm confident," he said after an hour-long meeting with Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. "The results must change."
"The election result has to change because there was widespread fraud," Mr Berlusconi told reporters. "There was fraud that doesn't go in all directions. It just goes one way," he added, suggesting that the alleged ballot box irregularities had all been at the expense of his alliance.
According to Interior Ministry data, the centre-left won the election for the lower house of parliament by just 25,000 votes out of 38.1 million ballots cast.
The prime minister suggested on Tuesday that with Italy split down the middle by the vote, the centre-left and centre-right should form a government of national unity to tackle the country's economic problems. But the idea was dismissed by Mr Prodi, who said he was already preparing to govern.
Even without accusations of fraud, Italy faced at least a month of limbo before a new government can be sworn in. Under the constitution, it is up to the head of state to nominate a new government after consultation with party leaders.
Mr Prodi had wanted Mr Ciampi to quickly name him prime minister, but the president, whose term ends on May 18th, believes it is the duty of his successor.