Italy's 5-Star Movement seen failing in local vote -exit polls

The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement looked set to fall short in local elections across Italy on Sunday, failing to make the run-off ballot in the seven major cities up for grabs, exit polls on state broadcaster RAI said.

5-Star is running neck-and-neck with the ruling centre-left Democratic Party in opinion polls nationally, but Sunday's vote showed that it was struggling to make gains at a local level.

The RAI polls saw 5-Star candidates coming third or fourth in Parma, Verona, Genoa, Palermo, L'Aquila, Catanzaro and Taranto. The centre-right and centre-left looked set to dispute many of these battles at a June 25 second round vote.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)