Italians were voting Sunday in a two-day referendum, of which the most important of four issues was whether to permanently abandon nuclear power production, as dpa reported. An estimated 47 million people were eligible to vote. With the validity of the referendum hinging on a quorum of a 50-per-cent-plus-one vote, several government ministers said last week that they would stay away and indicated their supporters should do the same. The opposition leftists also see the anti-nuclear referendum as a plebiscite on controversial Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and were happy about the strong turnout, which reached double-digit figures by noon.
