Centre-left candidate Alessandra Todde looks set to beat centre-right candidate Paolo Truzzu by a whisker and become Sardinia's new governor.
Todde held a 0.4% lead after almost 1600 of some 1800 polling stations, or 86%, reported and with the final result expected in the small hours of the morning.
Todde, who would thus become the Mediterranean island's first woman governor, caught up after being behind in early counting, and went into Monday night up by 45.4% to 45%.
Todde, 55, is former deputy head of the leftwing populist 5-Star Movement (M5S) and former deputy industry minister under Mario Draghi.
Truzzu, 51, is a member of Premier Giorgia Meloni's rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party and mayor of Cagliari.
Nuoro-born Todde, an engineer with two degrees, has lived most of her life outside her native island, working in eight different countries including the United States, Spain, the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands.
Truzzi, a Cagliari-born political science graduate with two daughters, has been mayor of the Sardinian capital since 2019.
His candidacy was imposed by Meloni over the League's choice, incumbent Christian Solinas of the Sardinian Action Party.
Todde's lead grew with the arrival of votes from the big cities like the capital Cagliari and Sassari where she boasted a healthy lead, while Truzzu won in smaller towns like Oristano and Olbia.
In pre-election opinion polls, Truzzu held a five-point lead over Todde.
However, in the final results, the centre-right alliance was set to get around 49% of the vote while the 'broad field' was heading for around 43%.
FdI looked like becoming top party by about a point from the PD, with the M5S third.
Tech magnate and former Democratic Party (PD) governor Renato Soru was standing third with 8.5% and the last, leftist and regionalist candidate, Lucia Chessa, was heading for 1%.
The election was seen as a test of whether the 'broad field' alliance between the PD and the M5S could compete at a national level with the dominant rightwing alliance of FdI, the League and the centre-right post Berlusconi Forza Italia (FI) party.
PD leader Elly Schlein and M5S leader and ex premier Giuseppe Conte flew to Cagliari from Rome for the ballot count.
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