(23 Feb 2013) SHOTLIST
Rome - 23 February 2012
1. Wide exterior of Visconti high school, a polling station in the centre of Rome
2. Close up of Italian and European Union flags outside the polling station
3. Mid of poll tellers opening the boxes with electoral ballots
4. Tellers spreading an electoral roll with party symbols
5. Pull focus of party symbols
6. Close pan from 5 Star Movement logo to Civic Choice (Monti) logo
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Lucia Annunziata, editor in chief of Huffington Post Italia:
"What we can notice is the very strong Grillo political party, which is a party that up to know has not emerged because its medium was Internet. But in the last part of the campaign he (Beppe Grillo, leader of the 5 Star Movement) has chosen to go in public - in piazzas, in the country(side) and towns. So he has shown himself very strong."
Rome - 22 February 2013
++NIGHT SHOTS++
8. Wide of Beppe Grillo arriving at final rally in Saint John's Square in Rome.
9. Mid of Grillo making his address, waving his hands and shouting at the crowd
10. Wide, back of Grillo rallying in front of thousands of supporters
Rome - 23 February 2012
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Franco Pavoncello, professor of Political Science at John Cabot University in Rome:
"The Grillo movement, the 5 Star Movement might do the incredible feat of receiving 20 percent of the votes and being the second party in these elections."
12. Wide of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi entering his car with his fiancee Francesca Pascale
13. Mid of Berlsuconi entering his car
14. Mid of Berlsuconi leaving by car to travel to his home in Arcore
15. Close-up of electoral ballot
16. Wide of a teller exiting polling station
17. Wide of courtyard of Visconti high school, a polling station in the centre of Rome
STORYLINE:
Amid corruption scandals, rising populist sentiment and financial hardship, Italians are voting in a watershed parliamentary election Sunday and Monday.
The ballot is seen as a test of their will to stay the course for painful economic reforms or revert to their free spending ways of the past.
On Saturday, election tellers were giving the finishing touches to polling stations while experts pondered the rise of an anti-establishment party, the 5 Star Movement.
Ballots were being counted and stamped, and electoral lists posted on the walls.
The country is set for a remarkable political drama.
Crisis-hit Italians are fed up. And the 5 Star Movement, led by comedian Beppe Grillo, is tapping this vein of outrage.
Lucia Annunziata, editor in chief of Huffington Post Italia explains the party, little known till very recently, has gained notoriety by going public.
"What we can notice is the very strong Grillo political party, which is a party that up to know has not emerged because its medium was Internet. But in the last part of the campaign he has chosen to go in public - in piazzas, in the country(side) and towns. So he has shown himself very strong," she says.
In Saint John's Square, a traditional location for national union rallies attracting hundreds of thousands of workers, Grillo packed a full house on Friday night.
He claimed 800-thousand supporters in the square and 150-thousand viewers online.
Grillo's campaign is significant because he shows strong chances of being the third - some project even the second - party in Parliament.
The 5 Star Movement began its journey in 2009, as a grassroots movement that used the Internet as its main infrastructure, and invited citizens to join as an exercise in direct democracy.
Grillo campaigned throughout Italy in what he called the "Tsunami Tour".
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