Back to the polls, this time for municipal elections. The big cities won't be at stake, those that matter most nationally like Rome or Milan, but if the main national leaders in recent days are busy traveling the length and breadth of Italy to hold their electoral rallies, it is because these elections, the third in just two months, still represent an important test. Yet another in a 2018 that has put all parties to the test, subverting what until a few months ago in Italy seemed an established political geography.
After the last electoral rounds it is difficult to continue to affirm, by way of example, that Tuscany continues to be the stronghold of the left. Precisely for this reason they become importantthe votes of Massa, Siena and Pisa, where the PD will try to play defense, countering the advance of the new government forces. The same will happen a thousand kilometers further down, a Catania, where the outgoing mayor Enzo Bianco, candidate of the centre-left, will run for a second term, but this time without having the symbol of the Democratic Party behind him. A choice that perhaps came to stem the "yellow" wave that in the elections of 4 March seems to have swept across all of Sicily, even if in this case the most formidable opponent promises to be the centre-right candidate, Salvo Pogliese.
Ad Avellino, the city of Luigi Di Maio, the 5 Star Movement will have to face a broad coalition that has received the blessing of two 90-strong old politicians such as Ciriaco De Mita and Nicola Mancino. Another highly anticipated result is that of Brescia, where the outgoing mayor Emilio Del Bono will challenge the candidate of the center-right, Paola Vilardi, and that of the M5s, Guido Ghidini (there are 8 candidates in all, however). On Del Bono the weight of stopping the advance of the Northern League which involved the whole of Lombardy on 4 March.
The answers that politics expects from this vote are essentially two: on the one hand, we will try to understand what the reaction of the electorate is to the new Lega-M5s government. It will be in this context that citizens will have the opportunity to make their opinion on the newly formed yellow-green alliance and on the program presented in Parliament by Premier Conte, even if in these elections the two forces present themselves as "rivals". On the other hand, we will try to understand what is the state of health of the centre-left after the defeats remedied first at the national teams and then at the regional ones. Was there a first, timid recovery or does the downward political phase continue? We will know on 11 June, once the ballot is completed.
Below is some important information about municipal elections on 10 June.
MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS 2018: WHERE TO VOTE
Voting takes place in 761 Municipalities, including 20 provincial capitals (a regional capital, Ancona) who will be called to the polls for the administrative elections of 10 June. More than 6,5 million potential voters will have to elect mayors and city councilors. The largest municipality is Catania, with over 300 inhabitants, the smallest is Castelmagno (Cuneo) with 62 inhabitants.
I 20 provincial capitals where to vote are:
- Lombardy: Brescia and Sondrio;
- Veneto: Treviso and Vicenza;
- Liguria: Imperia;
- Tuscany: Massa, Pisa and Siena;
- Abruzzo: Teramo in Abruzzo;
- Marches: Ancona;
- Umbria: Terni;
- Lazio: Viterbo Viterbo
- Campania: Avellino;
- Puglia: Barletta and Brindisi;
- Sicily: Catania, Messina, Ragusa, Syracuse and Trapani.
Among the cities listed, there are 7 that exceed 100 inhabitants, whose results are inevitably the most awaited: Ancona, Brescia, Catania, Messina, Syracuse, Terni and Vicenza.
Once again, it will be the lion's share of this electoral round Sicily, where votes are held in 137 municipalities (5 out of 9 provincial capitals), about a third of the total. Particular attention towards Trapani, where a year ago, in the 2017 administrative elections, the quorum of voters in the runoff was sensationally not reached (the regional law provides that 50% +1 of the right forwards must go to vote and that in order to win, at least 25% of the votes).
MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS 2018: WHEN YOU VOTE
As mentioned, we vote on Sunday 10 June. The eventual ballot instead it was fixed two weeks later: Sunday 24 June. In both cases, the polling stations will remain open from 7 in the morning to 23 in the evening. Counting will begin immediately after the polls close.
MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS 2018: HOW TO VOTE IN MUNICIPALITIES WITH MORE THAN 15 INHABITANTS
Municipalities with more than 15 inhabitants are subject to a two-round majority system. Voters will be given a single blue card in which the names of the candidates for the position of symbol have already been entered. Under the name of each candidate we find the symbols of the lists that support him. Three ways to vote required to elect the mayor:
- Tracing a sign on a list: in this case the vote goes to both the mayoral candidate and the chosen list.
- Tracing a sign on the candidate's name: the vote will go to him but not to the lists that support him.
- By making a mark on the name of the candidate for mayor and a second mark on a list not connected to him (split vote).
As regards the town council, next to the list symbol there is a white space where preferences can be expressed, writing one or two names of the candidates on the list. In the event that two preferences are expressed, the candidates voted for must be of different genders, otherwise the second preference will be cancelled.
Whoever obtains at least 50% plus one of the votes (40% in Sicily) is elected mayor already in the first round. Otherwise, there is a run-off between the two candidates with the most votes. In the second round, whoever receives the most votes wins.
MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS 2018: HOW TO VOTE IN MUNICIPALITIES WITH LESS THAN 15 INHABITANTS
In municipalities with up to 15 inhabitants, a single-turn majority system, that is, there is no ballot.
Each ballot contains the names of the candidates for mayor, each with a list of support. Voting for a candidate also chooses the list of advisers connected to it. There is no split vote.
Under the symbol there are one or two blank lines for preference voting where one of the names of the candidates on the linked list can be indicated (in municipalities with more than 5 inhabitants, 2 preferences can be expressed, in those with less than 5 inhabitants only one, except for Sicily and Friuli Venezia Giulia).
Whoever gets the most votes wins and the list is given as many votes as those given to the mayor.
