ROME, April 23, 2018 (Reuters) - A centre-right coalition won Sunday's election in the tiny southern Italian region of Molise, preliminary data showed, as negotiations continued at the national level to try to form a government following last month's inconclusive elections. Molise has only around 300,000 inhabitants, but its regional election was closely watched as a sign of possible momentum for the parties jostling to form a coalition in the wake of the March 4 election that produced a hung parliament. The centre-right candidate backed by a coalition of nine parties was on course to win around 44 per cent of the vote in Molise, ahead of the candidate for the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, with about 38 per cent. The vote was a setback for 5-Star, which had hoped to gain control of its first regional government after emerging as the largest party at the national ballot when it took 32 per cent and performed particularly strongly in the south. In Molise, with its 38 per cent, it was by far the largest party, with no other group taking more than 10 per cent, but it failed to overcome the combined forces of the centre-right. The centre-left, which was the incumbent government in the region, performed badly as it had in the national election, with its candidate backed by five parties on course to win about 17 per cent. The ruling Democratic Party (PD) got only 9 per cent. Later on Monday, the head of state Sergio Mattarella will decide his next step to try to solve the national deadlock. He is expected to ask the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Roberto Fico, who is from the 5-Star Movement, to act as a mediator to see if there is scope for a coalition between 5-Star and either the PD or the far-right League. At the election seven weeks ago a centre-right bloc led by the League won the most seats in parliament but was more than 50 short of an absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies. The 5-Star, as the largest individual party, says it is willing to govern with either the League or the PD, but so far neither has taken up its offer. On Monday, 5-Star's leader Luigi Di Maio published a 10-point programme on his Facebook page which he said was compatible with the ideas of both the League and the PD and could be the basis of a joint government programme. 5-Star refuses to govern with the League's main coalition partner, Forza Italia (Go Italy!) led by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and League leader Matteo Salvini has refused to abandon Berlusconi.
