Berlin  -  Centre-left candidate Laura Garavini, 41, claimed success Wednesday in her campaign for a parliamentary seat in Rome and said the German capital Berlin would continue to be her home base.

Postal ballots for the 12 lower-chamber and six senate seats reserved for Italians living abroad took longer to count than those cast Sunday and Monday at polling stations inside Italy.

She said in Berlin that she had obtained a preliminary tally from the Italian Interior Ministry showing she had won by far the most votes in the constituency formed of all the European nations except Italy.

Garavini, who is active in an association of Italians abroad, the Union of Italians in the World (UIM), is married to a German and has lived in Germany for the past 19 years. She is the first resident of Germany to be elected to the chamber of deputies.

She ran on behalf of the centre-left Democratic Party, led by Walter Veltroni, which will form the opposition to the future prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. Italians living abroad obtained the right to vote two years ago.

"My personal success is a source of satisfaction after such an exhausting campaign," she said. "But it doesn't compensate for the fact that the Democratic Party's defeat and the return to power of Berlusconi is bitter news for Italy."

She said her legal domicile would continue to be Berlin and she would stand up in the chamber of deputies in Rome for the needs of Italians living abroad and for their integration.

Garavini toured six European nations as she campaigned for votes among the 1.5 million voting-age Italians who live abroad in Europe.

She also holds membership in Germany's Social Democratic Party, part of Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition. (dpa)