Silvio Berlusconi is as famous for being a media magnate as he is for being Italy’s Prime Minister, and his final TV debate with Romano Prodi before the general election turned out to be a political version of It’s a Knockout — though without a clear result. The Forza Italia leader was deemed to have done marginally better than in the previous round against his rival from the centre-left alliance.

Border and airport closures, curfews and a ban on civilian traffic are not normally associated with polling day. Nor are the helicopter gunships and heavily armed escorts foreign journalists need if they dare to find out what voters are thinking. It is a measure of the terrifyingly abnormal circumstances in Iraq that this week’s parliamentary election is being held under such heavy security.