Guide to the administrative elections of 3 and 4 October

On 3 and 4 October 2021, the first round of administrative elections will be voted in 1,157 Italian municipalities, including six regional capitals. In total, twelve million electors and electricians are called to vote and of these more than six million in the cities of Rome, Milan, Turin, Naples and Bologna. In municipalities with more than 15,000 inhabitants, if no candidate obtains an absolute majority, a second round is held two weeks after the first. On the same dates there will be a vote to elect the president of the Calabria region and supplementary elections will be held in two constituencies of the Chamber of Deputies, Siena and Rome Primavalle.

There are 21 mayoral candidates in the capital. According to the latest polls, such as the one published by Corriere della Sera on 17 September, the favorites are the exponent of the center-right Enrico Michetti, supported among others by Lega, Fratelli d’Italia and Forza Italia, and that of the center-left, Roberto Gualtieri, former minister of the economy and MEP of the Democratic Party. Followed by the outgoing mayor Virginia Raggi, a candidate with the 5-star Movement, and the leader of Action, Carlo Calenda.

A Milano there are 13 candidates for the office of mayor. The polls favor the outgoing mayor Beppe Sala, supported by Pd, Europa Verde and various civic lists. The center-right supports Luca Bernardo, Lyla Pavone is the candidate of the 5-star Movement, while Gianluigi Paragone is supported by two civic lists. Sala could exceed the threshold of 50 percent plus one already in the first round.

A Torino, the mayoral candidates are 13. The favorites, according to the polls, are Paolo Damilano, supported by the center-right lists, and Stefano Lo Russo for the center-left. Valentina Sganga is also a candidate, with the support of M5s and Europa Verde, as well as Angelo D’Orsi, historian and university professor of the Turin university, supported by the radical left.

Bologna and Naples are the two largest cities where the agreement between the Democratic Party and the 5-star Movement was found. In capital of Emilia the parties led by Enrico Letta and Giuseppe Conte presented the common candidate Matteo Lepore, who won the center-left primary on 20 June. Lega, Fratelli d’Italia and Forza Italia instead support the candidacy of the entrepreneur Fabio Battistini. The left appears fragmented in the administrative offices of Bologna: Dora Palumbo with the united Left, Marta Collot with Power to the people and Federico Bacchiocchi with the Communist Workers’ Party.

A Naples there are seven candidates for mayors. According to the polls, the two favorites are Gaetano Manfredi, a common candidate of the Pd-M5s alliance and former minister of the university, and Catello Maresca, a magistrate supported by Forza Italia, Fratelli d’Italia and six other lists, after the regional administrative court he ruled out four other lists in his support, including that of the League. In Naples are also candidates Antonio Bassolino, mayor from 1993 to 2000 and then president of the Campania region until 2010, and Alessandra Clemente, supported by Power to the people.

On the same dates as the municipal elections in Calabria there will also be a vote to elect the president of the region. These are early elections, as President Jole Santelli died on October 15, 2020, a few months after being elected on January 26, 2020, with a center-right coalition. The Democratic Party and the 5-Star Movement support a common candidate, Amalia Bruni, while the center-right proposes Roberto Occhiuto. The outgoing mayor of Naples, Luigi de Magistris, and Mario Oliverio, former president of the Calabria region from 2014 to 2020, are also candidates.

A Siena and in the Primavalle district of Roma Supplementary elections will be held for two seats in the Chamber of Deputies, left vacant, respectively, by Pier Carlo Padoan of the Democratic Party, who joined the board of directors of Unicredit, and by Emanuela Del Re, of the 5-star Movement, who became permanent representative of the European Union for the Sahel. In the Tuscan city, the secretary of the Democratic Party, Enrico Letta, is a candidate, also supported by the 5-star Movement and Italia Viva, among others. Letta has chosen not to run with the symbol of the Democratic Party. To challenge him are the entrepreneur Tommaso Marrocchesi Marzi, supported by the center-right, and Marco Rizzo, leader of the Communist Party. For the Roman seatinstead, Andrea Casu for the Democratic Party, Pasquale Calzetta of Forza Italia and the former magistrate Luca Palamara are presented. In this case, the 5-star Movement has chosen not to submit any candidacy.

On Sunday 3 October the polling stations are open from 7 to 23, while on the 4th there is a vote from 7 to 15.

The green pass is not mandatory to access the seat, but all the anticovid regulations must be respected: wear a mask, sanitize your hands, stay at least one meter apart in the rows, avoid gatherings. Voters subjected to home treatment or in conditions of quarantine or fiduciary isolation for covid-19, who cannot leave the house in which they live, are allowed to vote at home (here the prefecture of Ravenna explains how to do it).

Each voter can tick the box with the name of the candidate he wants to elect and in this case the vote will go exclusively to him or her. If, on the other hand, the symbol of a list is crossed out, the vote is also granted to the candidate supported by that party. It is possible to express up to a maximum of two preferences for candidates for the city council, but respecting the criterion of gender alternation, a man and a woman. If the two votes go to candidates of the same gender, the preference will be considered null.

Separate voting is possible only in the largest municipalities: where the voters are more than 15 thousand, a preference can be expressed for the candidate of one side and another for a list of the opposite side. Where a second round will be held, it will go to the ballot, or a consultation between the two most voted mayoral candidates in the first round. In that case, whoever gets the most votes is elected.

The dates of the elections change in the regions with special statutes: in Sicily and Sardinia the first round is scheduled for 10 and 11 October, while in Trentino Alto-Adige only on 10. The possible ballot will be held on 24 October.

Curated by Tommaso Bertini