The Italian Treasury Minister, Mr Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, and the Interior Minister, Ms Rosa Russo Jervolino, appear to be the leading candidates to succeed President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. Both houses of parliament plus 58 regional representatives come together this morning to elect the 10th state president of the post-war era.
In what may well be the last presidential election of its kind, both centre-left government forces and the centre-right opposition were playing their cards close to their chests yesterday following a series of meetings, including one between the Prime Minister, Mr Massimo d'Alema, and the opposition leader, Mr Silvio Berlusconi.
A climate of uncertainty has been created by the failure of the centre-left coalition forces to agree on a candidate.
Given that a majority of forces across the political spectrum believe the time has come to enact constitutional changes which would see the president popularly elected, many commentators expect the new president to be a supra partes figure such as Mr Ciampi, a former Bank of Italy governor and a highly effective caretaker prime minister in 1993-94, as well as Treasury Minister in the present government.
One innovative aspect of this election has been the candidacy of Italy's European Commissioner, Ms Emma Bonino, whose campaign has highlighted the anachronistic electoral process. Despite enjoying high opinion polls ratings, however, Ms Bonino is not expected to succeed.
If party political considerations triumph over the logic of institutional reform, Ms Jervolino could step into the reckoning, because of her solid Christian Democrat pedigree and because she would be Italy's first woman president.
The president serves a seven-year term of office. To be elected, a candidate must obtain a two-thirds majority (673) of the secret ballot in the first, second or third rounds of voting. By round four, an absolute majority of 50 per cent plus one is sufficient to win.
Given that Italian public opinion is greatly concerned about the Kosovo crisis, many figures in public life have expressed the hope that the political forces would pick a unifying candidate. If they respond, Mr Ciampi may well be their choice.
