of the number of ballots to be rechecked. Only 2,131 Chamber ballots and 3,135 Senate ballots merited re-examination (reducing the total number of disputed ballots from the over 80,000 initially reported to just over 5,000). The result of this check added equally a few hundred votes to each coalition. Analysts also believed that the vote from abroad was so overwhelmingly in favour of The Union that the election would be highly unlikely to be overturned in Berlusconi's favour. The last ruling of the supreme court ("Corte di Cassazione") on 19 April 2006 stated that Prodi won the election by 24,755 votes. See also Elections in Italy History of Italy as a Republic Politics of Italy 2004 European Parliament election in Italy Elections in 2006 2006 Italian Chamber of Deputies election, North and Central American division 2006 Italian Senate election, North and Central American division Notes References External links Political & Electoral Surveys (The Political Thermometer) Q&A: Italian election Election results from the Interior Ministry Election results from the Interior Ministry (Archives of all Elections) 2006 General election April 2006 events in Europe