Berlusconi's right-wing coalition leads Italy's election: exit poll

ROME - Initial exit polls of Italy's national election showed on Sunday that former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right coalition was set to win the most votes but might fall short of a majority.

According to exit polls conducted by RAI state television, Berlusconi's four-party coalition was expected to win 33-36 percent of the ballots, followed by the anti-establishment Five Star Movement with 29-32 percent.

The center-left Democratic Party led by outgoing Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni gained 20-24 percent of the votes.

Italy's Interior Ministry said the turnout for the election that ended at 11 pm local time (2200 GMT) was about 74 percent, a slight drop from the 75 percent of eligible voters who participated in the 2013 election.

Italians were called on to choose their representatives in the 315-member Senate and the 630-seat Lower House for a five-year term under a new electoral system which would allocate a little over one-third of seats via a first-past-the-post system, and two-thirds on a proportional basis.

Final results of the election are expected to be released on Monday.