CLEAN HANDS

"They said that in one polling station, they had found 200 ballots that had been completed by the same person using the same mark and a pencil that had not been supplied by voting staff. Police also said that at least seven people had been reported for photographing their completed ballot slips on their mobile phones."

"They noted that vote buying was suspected in such cases. Centre-left MPs wrote to the interior ministry to complain in the run-up to the ******* vote that they had evidence of parties backing Cammarata handing out free mobile phones, money, food vouchers and boxes of pasta to voters in poor neighbourhoods."

No prizes for guessing the missing word *******in this news item from ANSA, but the boxes of pasta might be a clue. Another is the fact that I do like reading Andrea Camilleri, and that the word begins with P, and ends in O.