Italian election 2018 results: When are exit polls out? When will results be announced?

Europe’s recent rise – and subsequent fall – of populist movements will be put to the test today as Italians vote in a general election that could plunge the european Union into political crisis.

Polls ahead of the vote on Sunday suggested Italy could reestablish former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi as a dominant force in the country’s politics again.

But the polling data also suggests Italy could see a surge in support for the two main populist parties – Five Star Movement and La Lega, formerly known as Lega Nord.

In an election expected to leave Italy with a hung parliament, exit polls are everything.

When are exit polls out? When will results be announced?

On day this Sunday, polls will be open from 7am until 11pm across the country (6am until 10pm GMT).

The first exit polls should be published immediately after polls close at 11pm local time.

But it will take several hours before clear results flood in.

The votes are not expected to be fully counted until around 2pm on Monday local time (1pm GMT).

However, the first actual results could be released in the early hours of Monday, according to media reports.

What are the latest Italian Election 2018 polls?

Under Italian law, publishing opinion polls in the the penultimate two weeks of the electoral campaign is outlawed, but the last batch of polls paints a pretty clear picture of how the vote will go down.

Since the start of polling back in January 2018, the M5S has been a clear favourite to be the single biggest party in Parliament, followed by the PD.

A February 15 poll by Demopolis indicates a 28 percent vote for the M5S, a 22.5 percent vote for PD and 16.5 for Berlusconi’s FI.