ITALY:NOT FOR the first time, Italy's Northern League leader Umberto Bossi finds himself at the centre of controversy after he issued a call to "arms" on Sunday by way of protest at the confusion created by the ballot papers that will be used at next weekend's general election.
Speaking at an electoral rally in Verbania, on Lago Maggiore, northern Italy, Mr Bossi said: "If necessary, to stop the Romans who printed this pig's arse of a ballot sheet that makes a clear and simple vote almost impossible, we might just take up arms."
Mr Bossi's words were immediately condemned by the leading centre-left candidate, Walter Veltroni of the Partito Democratico (PD), who aimed his criticism at Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the centre-right PDL coalition which also includes the Northern League.
Until struck down by a stroke in March 2004, Mr Bossi had served for three years as minister of reform and devolution in the centre-right government led by Mr Berlusconi. Initially, the centre-right leader played down his ally's remarks, saying that "you all know what sort of fellow Bossi is".
Yesterday, Mr Berlusconi seemed to further distance himself, however, when saying that no one had asked him to make Mr Bossi a cabinet minister and going on to express reservations about his ally's health since his stroke.
The controversy prompted by Mr Bossi relates to the fact that the lay-out of the electoral ballot paper may prompt voters to return an invalid vote. For a vote to be valid, it must indicate just one party symbol. Yet both the centre-right and centre-left allies, namely Mr Berlusconi's PDL and the Lega Nord on one side, and the PD and Antonio Di Pietro's IDV party on the other, have confusingly been joined together on the ballot sheet.
Mr Berlusconi has called for the ballot papers to be reprinted, saying that the whole affair was further proof of the inability of the left to govern. Interior minister Antonio Amato replied that it is too late to reprint the ballot sheets since some Italians abroad have already voted, adding that the confusion is the product of an inadequate electoral law introduced by Mr Berlusconi in 2005.