In Emilia Romagna, as well as In Calabria, voting will take place on Sunday 26 January from 7 to 23 to elect the new governor and the members of the regional council (there is only one ballot). However, the similarities end here, because the voting methods are different: unlike in Calabria, in fact, in Emilia Romagna voters will be able to opt for separate voting. This is a detail that could make the difference in the electoral clash that sees the outgoing Governor, Stefano Bonaccini of the Democratic Party, and the challenger Lucia Borgonzoni, leader of the League, as protagonists, with very important political effects also on the Government and on the entire political framework national. But let's go in order and analyze the voting options one by one: in all, there are four.
OPTION 1: CROSS ON CANDIDATE'S NAME ONLY
The first possibility is to put the cross only on the name of the presidential candidate. In this case, the vote does not also extend to the single linked list or the coalition of linked lists (unlike what happened with the candidates for single-member constituencies in the last general elections).
OPTION 2: CROSS ON CANDIDATE AND LINKED LIST
But the crosses on the ballot can also be two: one on the name of a presidential candidate, the other on the symbol of a list connected to him. Obviously, this method of voting makes sense when a single candidate is supported by several lists.
OPTION 3: SEPARATE VOTE
It is also possible to vote for a candidate and for a list not connected to him, i.e. for a party that supports another candidate. This is the so-called split vote, which should lead the parties to choose candidates with other profiles capable of snatching votes also from the voters of the other alignments. This is exactly what the outgoing governor, Stefano Bonaccini (Pd), hopes to do, who also aims to intercept the votes of the center-right and the 5 Star Movement.
OPTION 4: VOTE ONLY FOR THE LIST
Finally, when the cross is placed only on the name of a list, the vote is also extended to the candidate connected to it. The converse, as we have seen, is not true.
TWO DIFFERENT GENDER PREFERENCES
Next to the symbol of the list, two preferences among the candidates for the Regional Council can also be indicated. However, the two candidates must be of different genders, otherwise the second preference is cancelled.
HOW THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM WORKS
The candidate who obtains the most votes brings a majority premium of 54% to the lists that support him, i.e. at least 27 seats out of 49. There is also a threshold: only lists that have exceeded 3% enter the Regional Council. unless the linked presidential candidate has exceeded 5%. In that case they enter anyway.
