(25 Feb 2013)
1. Various of Beppe Grillo, leader of the 5 Star Movement, walking towards polling station
2. Grillo surrounded by media
3. Grillo seen inside polling station, shot through window
4. Wide of media surrounding Grillo after he leaves polling station
5. Various of Grillo leaving
STORYLINE:
The leader of Italy's 5 Star Movement, Beppe Grillo, cast his vote in the country's national election on Monday.
The comic-turned-political agitator voted in his hometown of Genoa.
Grillo's protest movement against the entrenched political class has gained in strength following a series of corporate scandals that only seemed to confirm the worst about Italy's establishment.
Polls close at 3 pm local time (1400 GMT), ending two days of voting in an election being closely watched by Italy's eurozone partners as well as international investors trying to decide if they consider the eurozone's third-largest economy a good bet.
The election will determine whether Italians they are prepared to stay the course of painful economic reform - or send a message of discontinuity to the political class that led the country to the brink of disaster by rallying around a protest party.
If Grillo's self-styled political "tsunami" - which was polling third - sweeps into Parliament with a big chunk of seats, Italy could be in store for a prolonged period of political confusion that would spook the markets.
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