ROME – The fourth round of votes by the regional delegates to elect the next President took place Thursday, with results due to be published in the evening.

 For three consecutive days, Parliament has failed to agree on a new President. However, the number of blank ballots has been steadily decreasing. On Monday there were 672 abstentions, on Tuesday 527 and on Wednesday just over 400.

 With 125 votes, the current President Sergio Mattarella was the favourite in Wednesday’s ballot. He was followed by the Brothers of Italy candidate Guido Crosetto, who had 114 votes. Paolo Maddalena was third with 61 and Pier Ferdinando Casini, favoured by the centre-left, was fourth with 52. There were 412 blank votes, 22 void and 84 missing.

 The minimum number of votes needed to validate Thursday's ballot, according to protocol, dropped to 505 votes.

 In an earlier meeting, the main centre-right voters, starting with Umberto Bossi, decided to to abstain from the fourth vote, and have rejected the ballot and left the Chamber.

 Political sources expect another stalemate result.

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