ROME: Italy went to the polls yesterday in one of the country’s most uncertain elections ever with far-right and populist parties expected to make major gains and Silvio Berlusconi set to play a leading role as voter turnout heads towards a new low, reports AFP.

Polls opened at 0600 GMT and will close at 2200 GMT, and early figures from the Interior Ministry put nationwide turnout at 19.4 percent, above the 14.9 percent from the same point in 2013, when however the country voted over two days.

The numbers are in line with those from the same point of the constitutional reform referendum in December 2016, when overall 65.5 percent of the nation voted. That would put turnout at the lowest levels for a general election since the Second World War.

Confusion and delays blighted voting at some polling stations, with new anti-electoral fraud procedures being blamed for huge queues, while in one polling station in Rome voting had to be suspended due to the discovery of voting cards with the wrong candidates’ names printed on them.

Tensions between far-right and anti-fascist activists have marred a gloomy campaign dominated by fears about immigration and economic malaise.