Italian election 2018: Voting CHAOS as HUGE queues form as Italy heads to polls

casting their vote to elect their new prime minister and the 945 members of Parliament were met with long waiting lines outside of polling stations on Sunday.

Footage from Saint-Christophe and Quart in the Aosta Valley show voters stuck in long queues as they prepare to select their next government.

Dozens of people can be seen waiting outside their allocated polling station, with some forced to stand on staircases because of lengthy delays.

A change in the casting process is reportedly the reason behind the long queues which have been recorded throughout the Aosta Valley, Tuscany, Rome, Milan and Turin.

According to regional broadcaster Tgr Rai VdA voters are being asked to wait because of a longer security checks taking place before and after voting takes place.

Polling cards are now marked with anti-fraud stickers marked with a unique code that needs to be double-checked to ensure votes are not exchanged – a process doubling voting time.

Italian journalist Lorenzo Pregliasco wrote on Twitter: “Long queues at polling station: the anti-fraud sticker is significantly slowing down operations #Elezioni2018”

The election process became even more chaotic after presidents of the polling stations in two neighbourhoods of southern Italian city Palermo, Sicily, had to ask citizens to return later today to cast their ballots as they were delivered the wrong voting papers.

It is believed that more than 200,000 voting papers had to be reprinted and delivered to the polling stations involved.

The latest polls point to a hung parliament. If this happens, Italian President Sergio Mattarella, will call on parties to form a broader coalition of pre-election adversaries.

Polls for the will be open from 7am until 11pm across the country (6am until 10pm GMT).

The first exit polls should be published immediately after and the votes are expected to be fully counted around 2pm on Monday local time (3pm GMT).