The Italian election 2018 in which voters will elect the 945 members of the parliament for the 18th legislature since 1948 will take place on Sunday, March 4 2018. In Italy, elections for MPs and Senators take place every five years - with 630 members of the Camera dei Deputati (lower chamber) and 315 of the Camera del Senato (the Senate/upper house) vying to retain and regain a seat this weekend. On election day this Sunday, polls will be open from 7am until 11pm across the country (6am until 10pm GMT). The first exit polls should be published immediately after and the votes are expected to be fully counted around 2pm on Monday local time (3pm GMT).

However, the first actual results could be released in the early hours of Monday, according to media reports. Everyone over 18-years-old gets a vote - but only people over 25 can elect representatives in the upper chamber. Voters are presented with two sheets of paper, one to choose members of the lower chamber and one to choose the ones of the upper one. The upper chamber also has a small portion of people ( a vita, senators for life) who can’t be elected but are appointed by the President for specific merits and retain their seats for their life. i.e. Architect Renzo Piano is a Senatore a vita.

People aged between 18-24 can only vote for members of the lower chamber. Under Italian law, opinion polls are not allowed in the final two weeks before the vote. Polling data has now been suspended ahead of next week’s vote - but an Index poll from February 2018 seems to show the clear winners this week. Berlusconi’s centre-right party Forza Italia is currently in a pre-election coalition with the Northern League and the post- Brothers of Italy (FDI).

This coalition has the best chance of forming a government with the Index poll suggesting the group could take 295 seats. The coalition partners have agreed that the party that gets the most votes will then get to choose the candidate for Prime Minister. Out of the three parties, Forza Italia is currently in the lead in the polls but Berlusconi will not be allowed to take public office as he remains barred after a tax fraud conviction in 2013. In Italy’s general election in 2013, the first exit polls correctly indicated the Democratic Party had enough votes to win. But those same polls also overstated how much support the Democrats would receive and underestimated the votes for the populist, eurosceptic Five Star Movement. </s> Italy’s 18th general election since 1948 takes place on Sunday March 4, less than three months after President Sergio Matarella dissolved Parliament on December 28.

Today, Italians will head to the polls to cast their ballots for the 945 member Parliament, between 7am and 11pm local time (6am and 11pm GMT).

The people will simultaneously cast their votes for the 630 member lower chamber, known as the Camera dei Deuptati, and the 315 member Senate, known as the Camera del Senato.

The first exit polls should be published immediately after polls close at 11pm local time but votes are not expected to be fully counted until around 2pm on Monday local time (1pm GMT).

Here is the latest on the Italian Election 2018 as polls open. All times in GMT. </s> Italy’s 18th general election since 1948 takes place on Sunday March 4, less than three months after President Sergio Matarella dissolved Parliament on December 28. Today, Italians will head to the polls to cast their ballots for the 945 member Parliament, between 7am and 11pm local time (6am and 10pm GMT). The people will simultaneously cast their votes for the 630 member lower chamber, known as the Camera dei Deuptati, and the 315 member Senate, known as the Camera del Senato. The first exit polls should be published immediately after polls close at 11pm local time but votes are not expected to be fully counted until around 2pm on Monday local time (1pm GMT). Approxmately 50.7 million Italians are eligible to vote in today’s election. Here is the latest on the Italian Election 2018 as polls open. All times in GMT.

10.47am update: Millions of Italians will turn out to vote today Some 50.7 million Italians are eligible to vote and polling booths will remain open until 11 pm (10pm GMT). Local media will publish exit polls immediately afterwards, but it might take many hours before the full result emerges. Opinion polls were banned in the last two weeks of the campaign but surveys suggest Berlusconi’s alliance was in front but would not win a majority. Pollsters say the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement should emerge as the largest single party, while the ruling centre-left Democratic Party (PD) is seen coming third. Official results are expected early on Monday, although the final result might not be clear until late on Monday.

More than 200 polling stations are still closed two hours after the official opening of the vote. Polling stations in the southern Italian city Palermo, Sicily had to ask citizens to return later today to cast their ballots as they were delivered the wrong voting papers. It is understood more than 200,000 voting papers had to be reprinted and delivered to the polling stations involved. The ballot papers were not displaying the name of President of the Senate Pietro Grasso, leader of left-wing coalition Liberi E Uguali. Mr Grasso took to Twitter to voice his disappointment. He wrote: “In the most important day for a democracy these delays and mistakes are unacceptable. READ MORE: More than 200 polling stations CLOSED over wrong voting papers

10am update: Matteo Renzi casts his vote in the Italian election Renzi has voted in his polling station in Florence around 9.20am Italian time, the polling station was full with photographers and journalists so he said to the officials of the polling station "sorry for the annoyance". The current President of Italy has voted in Palermo and Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni has also cast his vote in Rome.

The vote could bring political gridlock to Italy as no bloc is predicted to win enough votes to form a majority in government. Since the fall of fascism, all electoral laws have been re-written, so no single party can run by itself, instead seats are distributed in a proportional way. Even big parties need alliances to be able to have a majority and form a government, parties start their campaign from the beginning who they will ally with and form coalition lists with them. The centre-right bloc is formed of Forza Italia, Lega and Brothers of Italy and the centre-left bloc is made up of Democratic Party (Partito Democratic PD) and Insieme, Civica Popolare and +Europa. According to Paolo Cossarini, teaching fellow in Politics and International Relations at Loughborough University, he has predicted the vote percentage of the main blocs as follows:
• Party not in pre-electoral alliance - Five Star Movement: 25-28%

8.48am update: Berlusconi’s centre-right bloc likely to win most seats Pollsters have predicted that former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and his far-right allies will emerge as the largest bloc in parliament, but fall short of a parliamentary majority. The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement looks set the be the biggest single party, establishing itself as a populist party, with the young at its heart. There was momentum for 5-Star in the final days of the campaign, but it is hard to see any party or coalition getting the 40 percent needed to form a government," said Lorenzo Pregliasco, co-founder of YouTrend pollsters. Polling stations close at 11.00 p.m. (2200 GMT), with exit polls due immediately afterwards. The vote is being held under a complex new electoral law which means the final result might not be clear until late Monday.

8.26am update: When do the polls close tonight? The polls will be open from 7am until 11pm today (6am untl 10pm GMT). Italians will vote across the country in the unpredictable contest which has largely been dominated by immigration. The first exit polls should be published immediately after the the polls close and the votes are expected to be counted around 2pm local time on Monday (3pm GMT). All 945 members of the parliament will be elected for the 18th legislature since 1948 - Camera dei Deputati (Chamber of Deputies/lower chamber) and 315 of the Camera del Senato (the Senate/upper house).

6am update: With the polls now open, here is what could happen in the election today What are the latest Italian Election 2018 polls? Under Italian law, publishing opinion polls in the the penultimate two weeks of the electoral campaign is outlawed, but the last batch of polls paints a pretty clear picture of how the vote will go down. Since the start of polling back in January 2018, the M5S has been a clear favourite to be the single biggest party in Parliament, followed by the PD. A February 15 poll by Demopolis indicates a 28 percent vote for the M5S, a 22.5 percent vote for PD and 16.5 for Berlusconi’s FI. Despite bad reviews in Rome, Five Star Movement is the number one single party in the polls, projected to win more than 27 percent of votes. The incumbent ruling party, the Democratic Party, is behind, projected to win less than 23 percent. But Berlusconi is expected to lead the way to victory with his centre-right coalition of three parties — former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia, the populist La Lega and Brothers of Italy, with neo-fascist roots — polling at 37 percent. However, a 2013 conviction for tax fraud means Berlusconi cannot himself hold public office and so he has put forward Antonio Tajani, the president of the European Parliament, as his pick for prime minister. Berlusconi was forced to quit as Italian prime minister in 2011 amidst a sovereign debt crisis and was widely discredited after sex scandals, legal trouble and ill health. </s> A rift between the two coalition partners, Five Star Movement (M5S) and the Lega, deepened this week after the M5S voted against a costly Turin-Lyon high-speed rail link project (TAV) backed by Salvini's party.

"Today, I told Prime Minister Conte: let's go straight to the parliament to record that there is no majority anymore, as the TAV vote showed, and quickly give the floor to the Italians," Salvini said in a statement.

Italians need certainty and a government that is productive, he stressed.

"We do not want any more seats or ministers, we do not need reshuffles or technical governments. After this government, which has done a lot of good, there can only be election. [Summer] recess cannot be an excuse for losing time, and parliamentarians, unless they want to save their mandate by any means, can return to work next week, like millions of other Italians," Salvini said.

The parliament's recess started on Thursday and is scheduled to conclude in early September.

M5S leader Luigi Di Maio said that his party was ready to participate in snap parliamentary elections.

"We are ready, we are not at all interested in the [ministerial] seats, and they never interested us," Di Maio said a special statement circulated on Thursday evening.

He also proposed to finally approve the law on reducing the composition of the Italian parliament by half before conducting the snap election. The final vote on this issue was scheduled for early September, immediately after the recess.

"This is a landmark reform, we will reduce 345 seats and send home 345 politicos. If we again convene the chambers of parliament, we will take the opportunity to vote on this reform earlier. We will vote for it and then pass the floor to the Italians," Di Maio said.

The leader of the largest opposition Democratic Party, Nicola Zingaretti, also said that his supporters were ready for early elections.

"We are ready for the challenge. In the upcoming elections, not only the issue of government will be decided, but also the fate of our democracy and the international position of our country," he wrote on Facebook.

On Wednesday, Salvini said that "something is broken" in the government coalition, while Di Maio wrote on Facebook that he was "tired of palace games." Sources in M5S said it opposed the "technical government," which, in the absence of a parliamentary majority, could survive until the next election.

On Thursday morning, Conte held consultations with President Sergio Mattarella. After the meeting, it was reported that Conte and Mattarella discussed neither the government crisis, nor the prime minister's departure. Conte later held separate meetings with Salvini and Di Maio. </s> Italians voted yesterday overwhelmingly to elect Matteo Renzi as the new head of the ruling Democratic Party, returning him to frontline politics as the party faces a growing challenge from populist politicians.

"It is a clear, ample victory that went beyond our expectations," said agriculture minister Maurizio Martina, who has been campaigning for Mr Renzi. "This is the opening of a new phase."

Voters queued at tents, bars and local party headquarters across the country to choose between Andrea Orlando, the justice minister, Michele Emiliano, governor of the southern Puglia region, and Mr Renzi, the former prime minister.

Turnout was estimated at between 1.9 to 2 million voters, an "extraordinary" result, said Mr Renzi, 42, who resigned in December after Italians overwhelmingly rejected a national referendum to reform Italy’s constitution.

In remarks on the terrace of the party headquarters, Mr Renzi said the primary victory - estimated to be well over 60 percent - marked the "turning of a new page" for the party, and possibly the future of Europe.
Italians go to the polls today to elect the 630 members of the Chamber of Deputies and the 315 members of the Senate of the Republic.