All the major political parties in the province depend on this vote bloc in many areas of central and southern Punjab to win parliamentary seats.
If Democrats vote as a bloc, which they often do, it takes only sixteen dissenting Republicans for the leadership to lose a vote.
Enrico Letta, Mr Bersani's deputy, said the centre-left bloc should win the vote in the lower house and would have the responsibility for trying to form a new government.
His centre-left bloc won the lower house vote but failed to secure a majority in the Senate.
The territories could have an impact in the race if, as expected, they vote as a bloc with the state of Hawaii.
Romney's announcement is the latest salvo in a fierce battle that is developing for the youth vote, a bloc Obama is focusing on this week.
One way to emulate the Jewish community, members of the 80-20 Initiative believe, is by getting at least 80% of Asian Americans to vote as a bloc.
If McCain chooses, the new justices will vote with the conservative bloc.
Here's the dilemma for an Antonin Scalia or Chief Justice John Roberts, who typically vote with the conservative bloc: While they don't like expanding federal power, they like second-guessing the democratic process even less.
Hispanics make up the fastest-growing immigrant population in the country, and the Latino vote is considered a crucial bloc for the November presidential election.
Even if Catholics are not the voting bloc they were in generations past, their vote will be watched closely in Ohio and elsewhere.
With returns from almost all districts processed, Mr Bersani's centre-left bloc had won 29.57% of the vote for the lower house (Chamber of Deputies) to 29.15% for Mr Berlusconi's bloc.
Puerto Ricans are now the second largest Hispanic group in the state after Cuban-Americans, a Republican-leaning bloc that has seen its share of the statewide vote decline as other Latino communities grow at a faster clip.
The elections have brought a resounding defeat for the ruling Solidarity bloc, which gained less than 5% of the vote and lost all its seats in Parliament.
Another bloc containing the al-Nur party was predicted to take some 20% of the vote.
The vote could determine the country's future in the 17-nation euro currency bloc.
Among them was Oday Mohammed, a businessman who brought his mother, wife and children along with him to vote for a candidate from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's State of Law bloc.
Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has conceded the lower house to Pier Luigi Bersani's centre-left bloc, played down the significance of the spread, and said he was not worried about market reaction to the vote.
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