Sicily's Regional Vote: Italy right looks to have trumped populists

Italy's resurgent right looked set to triumph over the country's populists in Sicily's regional vote Sunday, in a victory seen as a key indicator for the general election, exit polls showed.

The anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) had been ready to take home its first region in a ballot closely watched not just in Italy but in a Europe uneasy with the rise of populism.

But candidate Giancarlo Cancelleri, 42, was apparently pipped to the post by Nello Musumeci, 62, as a divided left faltered.

Polls on the Italian island closed at 10 pm (2100 GMT) and vote counting began yesterday.

The right is forecast to have taken between 35 and 39 percent of the vote according to public television RAI -- a triumph that would boost the fortunes of four-time former premier Silvio Berlusconi.

M5S was believed to have won between 33 and 37 percent, while ex-premier Matteo Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) looks to have taken between 16 and 20 percent.

Analysts say the political dynamic on the Mediterranean island mirrors the situation nationally, and the vote was seen as a dress rehearsal for the eurozone's third-largest economy before elections due before May.

A new electoral system, voted in last month, favours alliances.

If the results are confirmed, it would prove the power of a coalition made up of Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (Go Italy) and its rightist allies, the anti-immigrant Northern League and the Brothers of Italy.