Tensions have been boiling in the governing coalition since July, when Mr. Berlusconi split with a major ally, Gianfranco Fini, the co-founder of his center-right party and the speaker of the lower house of Parliament.
With 90percentt of the ballots counted, he had 73percentt of the votes against 27percentt for his challenger, Francisco Guterres, the president of the governing Fretilin party and the speaker of Parliament, said Maria Angelina Sarmento, a spokeswoman for the National Election Commission.
Even as, rhetorically, they stretched the chasm between the two parties, some of the speakers at Brighton also set about quietly closing it.On the most superficial, sloganeering level, all the parties are now promising "change".
This in the country where the leader of the ruling party, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, at least three chief ministers, and a number of sports and business icons are women.
Representative Christopher Shays, a moderate Connecticut Republican who attended, said he was happy for voters to see "the full breadth of our party" in the speaker lineup.
The surprise announcement came a day after members his own party petitioned the speaker of the Parliament to begin impeachment proceedings against Mr. Chiluba, and it capped a week of fierce political dueling between the 58-year-old president and his fast-expanding roster of opponents.
In the latest flourish of a twisty melodrama that has consumed the General Assembly for weeks, the party chairwoman stripped the speaker of the House, Kent Williams, of his Republican Party membership, citing "dishonor, deception and betrayal".
A centrist bloc, including Future and Liberty, a breakaway party led by the speaker of the lower house, Gianfranco Fini, and the Union of the Center, a grouping of former Christian Democrats, has also said it will back a national unity government.
"People welcome the opportunity to hear an argument at length, not just a couple of minutes of the party line before the speaker gets bullied and sent off".
The group included a top Brotherhood official, Essam el-Erian, and Saad el-Katatni, who later led the group's political party and became the speaker of Parliament.
