Gay, centre-left, anti-mafia Rosario Crocetta voted governor of Sicily

A gay man who shrugged off three mafia plots to kill him is poised to become Sicily's first homosexual governor in elections that show the centre left advancing at the expense of Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing party.

Representing a coalition of Italy's centre-left Democratic Party and the Catholic UDC party, Rosario Crocetta claimed victory over against the candidate of ex-premier Berlusconi's People of Freedom party (Il Popolo della Liberta, or PDL) and a contender representing the maverick movement of comedian Beppe Grillo, who trailed in third place.

"It's the first time that a candidate for the left is elected as regional governor, it's the first time that an anti-Mafia candidate wins," declared a victorious Crocetta, 61, on Monday. "Today is more than an election result; it is a date with history."

With 75 per cent of votes counted, Crocetta, of the Democratic Party, was leading with 31 per cent, ahead of the PDL's Sebastiano Musumeci with 25 per cent, robbing the latter of what was once the centre-right's stronghold on the Mediterranean island. The outsiders, the anti-politics Five Star Movement, surprised observers by garnering 18 per cent amid rising sentiment against the established parties and anger over rampant corruption, particularly in the Mafia stronghold.

Crocetta, a devoted Catholic, has long claimed that southern Italy is surprisingly relaxed about gay politicians, once stating, "There is a great respect for the individual, making it less homophobic than the north."

In August he told an interviewer, "After leaving prison in England, Oscar Wilde took refuge in Palermo. Seen like this, there is much people have to learn about the south".