Sicily vote neck-and-neck between center-right and populists

MILAN (AP) - Early results in a regional election in Sicily show the center-right widening its advantage over the populist 5-Star movement.

Less than half of the Italian island's 4.6 million eligible voters turned out Sunday for the last major electoral test before a national election due next year.

With 37 percent of the vote counted early Monday, center-right candidate Nello Musumeci was leading with 38.9 percent of the vote ahead of 5-Star candidate Giancarlo Cancelleri who had 35.6 percent support. The Democratic Party, which leads the central Rome government, was lagging badly at 18.4 percent.

A victory by Musumeci would restore the island's traditional political order after five years of a center-left administration, while a victory by the 5-Star movement would hand the populist party control of its first region in Italy.

The Sicily vote has turned into a proxy of sorts for national politics. All the major national party leaders, including former Premier Silvio Berlusconi for the center-right, 5-Star Movement founder Beppe Grillo and Democratic Party leader Matteo Renzi had converged on the island in recent weeks to stump for their candidates.

Musumeci, a former Catania provincial president, has been backed by Berlusconi's Forza Italia, the anti-EU Northern League and the right-wing Fratelli d'Italia party.