By Stephen Brown and Silvia Aloisi
ROME (Reuters) - Italians began voting on Sunday in aparliamentary election that could bring media magnate SilvioBerlusconi back to power for the third time to tackle a deepeconomic and social malaise.
His main challenger is centre-left leader Walter Veltroni,who portrays himself as a man of change but his promises tomake modest tax cuts and get tough on crime are similar to thepledges made by the conservative 71-year-old billionaire.
Many of Italy's 47 million voters are gloomy about theprospects for economic recovery and political stability as theyselect their 62nd government since World War Two, especially aselection laws make it hard for anyone to win a clear majority.
"I don't care who wins. I just want a government thatlasts," said 54-year-old teacher Francesco Antonazzi, voting inRome when booths opened at 8 a.m. (7 a.m. British time). Theyshut at 3 p.m. on Monday and the result could be clear a fewhours later.
The centre-left government led by Roman Prodi lasted just20 months before bickering between members of the coalitionforced him to resign as prime minister in January and call anelection.
Berlusconi is the only man in 50 years to have lasted afull term as prime minister, from 2001 to 2006. Now leader ofthe centre-right People of Freedom (PDL) party, he consistentlyled opinion polls in the campaign by six to nine percentagepoints.
Veltroni, the 52-year-old Democratic Party leader and aformer Rome mayor, hoped to win over voters by adopting the"Yes we can" slogan of U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama.But many Italians show little faith in their politicians.
"I have faith in the Democratic Party but I don't think thenext government is going to last more than the last one," said63-year-old Ruggero Bianchi, among the early voters streaminginto a Rome polling station.
PHOTO FINISH?
Italy's morale has been battered by the struggle to find abuyer for loss-making airline Alitalia, a garbage crisis inNaples, a health scare over mozzarella cheese and gloomy newsfor the fourth largest economy in the European Union.
The International Monetary Fund sees just 0.3 percentgrowth this year for Italy, which has long lagged behind itspartners in the euro zone and has the third highest public debtin the world in absolute terms.
Up to one third of the electorate was expected to decidewho to vote for at the last minute and many voters havecomplained there is little to choose between the rivalplatforms.
The flamboyant Berlusconi and his low-key adversary bothpromise modest tax cuts aimed at spurring consumption. Theyhave also both said Italy needs more police to tackle crime.
But the winner's ability to carry out reforms to avert alooming recession could be hampered by a complex election law-- introduced by Berlusconi's last government -- that makes ithard to win a clear majority in the upper house of parliament.
The 2006 election which Berlusconi lost to Prodi was theclosest in modern Italian history. A narrow margin this timemight force the winner into a deal with smaller parties -- thecommunist/green Rainbow Left, centrist Union of ChristianDemocrats or hard-right La Destra.
Both candidates have denied they would form a "GrandCoalition" to reform voting rules and create a two-partysystem.
For the first time, voters had to leave mobile phonesoutside booths to avoid fraud involving photos of votes cast.
In a country with more mobile phones than people, accordingto one recent study, some voters pulled two or three from theirpockets and bags, protesting they were not camera phones.
(Writing by Stephen Brown; Editing by Timothy Heritage)
For more coverage of Italy's elections, check out:http://blogs.reuters.com/italia/
