Anti-Mafia campaigners will be rooting today for Rita Borsellino, the sister of a murdered anti-mob prosecutor who is bidding to become the first female head of Sicily's regional government.
Borsellino is running for the job against Salvatore Cuffaro, a centre-right heavyweight who has led Sicily's government for the past five years and is standing for re-election in the Sunday and Monday ballot.
A former pharmacist and mother of three, the 61-year-old Borsellino entered public life after the 1992 Mafia slaying of her brother Paolo, a high-profile judge. She has dedicated the last 14 years to combating the Mafia in Sicily, becoming deputy chairman of Libera (Free), an association founded to encourage a sense of lawfulness and justice among young Sicilians.
But her candidacy with the centre-left coalition initially sparked polemics, with members of the alliance's centrist Daisy party lobbying for a more experienced politician to take on Cuffaro.
Borsellino sealed her candidacy with a landslide victory in a US-style primary election in Sicily last December. In a final campaign rally here on Friday, where she was supported by Italy's new Premier Romano Prodi, Borsellino called for a turnaround in Sicily.
"Sicily has been shy and incapable of expressing its will. She has allowed herself to be violated and bought and
let her rights be denied," she said. The rally was attended by Agnese Borsellino, the widow of Paolo Borsellino, who was killed in a car bomb outside his mother's house in Palermo in July 1992. Five members of the magistrate's escort were also killed in the blast, including a policewoman.
The bombing came less than two months after the nation's leading anti-Mafia magistrate, Giovanni Falcone, his wife Francesca and three bodyguards were killed by a remote-controlled bomb planted under a motorway outside Palermo.
Borsellino's rival Cuffaro, a member of the centrist, Catholic UDC party, is currently on trial on Mafia-related
charges. Cuffaro, whose party is part of the centre-right coalition led by former premier Silvio Berlusconi, denies all wrongdoing.
He has refused to step down or stand aside in the election race, insisting that his anti-Mafia credentials are
in order. Prodi steered clear on Friday of depicting the Sicily showdown in terms of the fight against the Mafia.
Asked by a German reporter whether a Borsellino victory would mean a victory for the anti-Mafia, Prodi replied: "I don't like simplifications. Rita has taken on an enormous responsibility".
Meanwhile, Cuffaro, a 48-year-old former radiologist, defended his record as Sicilian governor, a post which has more government autonomy than usual because the island enjoys a special status.
Cuffaro said that under his leadership, Sicily had "changed", citing important infrastructure work which he said had made life better for tens of thousands of Sicilians. Cuffaro was elected in 2001 with almost 60% of the vote.
