ITALIANS voted today in an election that could move the country’s politics sharply toward the right.

Polls opened at 7am and by noon turnout was equal to or slightly less than at the same time during Italy's last general election in 2018.

The counting of paper ballots was expected to begin shortly after they close at 11pm, with projections based on partial results coming early this morning.

Publication of opinion polls is banned in the two weeks leading up to the election, but polls before that showed far-right leader Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy party, with its neofascist roots, the most popular.

That suggested Italians were poised to vote their first far-right government into power since World War II. Close behind was former Premier Enrico Letta and his centrist Democratic Party.

“Today you can help write history,” Ms Meloni tweeted this morning.

Mr Letta, for his part, tweeted a photo of himself at the ballot box. “Have a good vote!” he wrote.

Ms Meloni is part of a right-wing alliance with anti-migrant League leader Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi, the three-time premier who heads the Forza Italia party he created three decades ago.

Italy’s complex electoral law rewards campaign coalitions, meaning the Democrats are disadvantaged since they failed to secure a similarly broad alliance with left-leaning populists and centrists.

If Ms Meloni becomes premier, she will be the first woman in Italy to hold the office. But assembling a viable, ruling coalition could take weeks.