A top Italian court confirmed the slim electoral victory of centre-left leader Romano Prodi in the lower house of parliament, but Silvio Berlusconi's conservative coalition is not conceding defeat.
The Court of Cassation, which is conducting a review of contested ballots from this month's parliamentary election, said Mr Prodi had won the lower house by about 24,000 votes - a margin nearly unchanged from the one previously announced.
The review of disputed ballots for the upper house is still under way, delaying official certification of the results of the April 9th-10th election.
However, the small number of contested ballots in the Senate was not expected to reverse Mr Prodi's slim victory in that chamber either. Preliminary reports by regional offices confirmed Mr Prodi's victory.
After the court's announcement yesterday, Mr Prodi said Italians should have no more doubts about his electoral win. "Finally the electoral affair is over," Mr Prodi told a news conference at his Rome headquarters.
Mr Prodi said he had not received a phone call from Mr Berlusconi, indicating the premier was still unwilling to concede defeat. "He didn't call me and I don't know why," Mr Prodi said in a response to a question.
Minutes after the court's announcement, a top Berlusconi ally said the conservative coalition was not conceding defeat.
The announcement "does not exhaust all the checks on the electoral results," Giulio Tremonti, the economy minister, was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.