Italy vote overshadowed by Mafia-style killing

ROME (Reuters) - Former European Commission President Romano Prodi looked set to be crowned the left's election candidate on Monday but his moment of victory was marred by the Mafia-style killing of a local politician.

Turnout was high for Italy's first primary election vote, held by the center-left opposition on Sunday to choose a candidate to run against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in general elections next spring.

But before the polls closed, police said two masked gunmen shot dead Francesco Fortugno, 54-year-old vice president of the regional government of Calabria in the south of the country, as he exited a polling station.

Politicians from across the political spectrum denounced the murder -- the first of its kind in Calabria in 16 years -- and Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said he would fly to the region early on Monday.

"We are working on a response to this attack that will be decisive and forceful," the prosecutor in Locri where the shooting occurred, Giuseppe Carbone, was quoted by local agency ANSA as saying.

Early exit polls gave Prodi 75 percent of the vote, a landslide victory over the six other candidates drawn from across the center-left spectrum and far higher than anticipated.

Second place looked likely to be taken by veteran communist leader Fausto Bertinotti with some 14 percent.

Turnout at the 10,000 polling booths also far exceeded expectations with organizers predicting more than 3 million voters by the time stations closed at 10 p.m. (2000 GMT), three times more than forecast.