ROME, June 26 (UPI) -- Italian voters turned down constitutional changes backed by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi after two days of voting ended Monday.
The changes included increasing the power of the prime minister and at the same time ceding power from the central government to the regions.
The results were seen as a victory for Romano Prodi, who became prime minister after a close election against Berlusconi's center-right alliance, the Financial Times reported. With most of the votes in, the no vote had about 61 percent of the total, a far more convincing majority than that achieved by the center-left group in the parliamentary election.
Prodi opposed the changes but has also promised to open discussion on constitutional change. Italy's constitution was adopted in 1948, immediately after World War II and the Mussolini era.
Berlusconi presented the changes to parliament, where they failed to pass by a big enough margin to take effect without a referendum.
