2016 Rome municipal election

Snap municipal elections were held in Rome on 5 and 19 June 2016, to elect the Mayor of Rome and 48 members of the City Council, as well as the fifteen presidents and more than 400 councillors of the 15 municipi in which the municipality is divided.

2016 Rome municipal election

← 2013 5 June 2016 (first round)
19 June 2016 (second round)
2021 →
Turnout57.0% Increase 4.2 pp (first round)
50.1% Decrease 6.9 pp (second round)
 
Candidate Virginia Raggi Roberto Giachetti
Party Five Star Movement Democratic Party
Alliance Centre-left
1st Round vote 453,806 320,170
Percentage 35.25% 24.87%
2nd Round vote 770,564 376,935
Percentage 67.15% 32.85%

First round results by municipi

Second round results by municipi
Red municipi are those with most votes for Giachetti and Yellow those for Raggi.

Mayor before election

Francesco Paolo Tronca
(Special commissioner)

Elected Mayor

Virginia Raggi
M5S

The elections were called following the fall of the former Mayor of Rome Ignazio Marino, who was ousted from office after more than half of the members of the City Council resigned in October 2015.[1]

The first round of voting on 5 June produced no outright winner, resulting in a run-off election on 19 June between Virginia Raggi, the candidate of the Five Star Movement (M5S), and Roberto Giachetti, member of the Democratic Party (PD).[1] Raggi won the mayoral election with two-thirds of the vote,[2] and her party alone won a majority in the City Council of Rome with 29 of the 48 seats.[3]

The results were widely reported as a major breakthrough for the Five Star Movement, which had previously been seen as a protest party rather than a significant political force.[4][5] At the same round of elections, M5S also won Turin municipal elections.[4]

Background edit

On 12 October 2015, the incumbent mayor Ignazio Marino announced his resignation amidst an accusation of expense scandal that had been made by some opposition parties (especially Five Star Movement and the right-wing Brothers of Italy), but on 29 October he retired the resignation. Nevertheless, on 30 October he was ousted from his position after 26 of the 48 members of the City Council resigned. The mayorlater was replaced by a government-appointed commissioner and snap municipal elections were called.[6]

Centre-left primary election edit

As in 2013, the centre-left coalition decided to hold the primary election on 6 March 2016 to decide its mayoral candidate. There were 6 main candidates, all from Democratic Party, since the left-wing parties decided to break the alliance and present their own mayoral candidate.[7]

Among the most popular candidates there were deputies Roberto Giachetti and Roberto Morassut. More than 47,000 citizens took part to the primary election which was won by Giachetti:

Candidate Supported by Votes (%)
Roberto Giachetti PD 64%
Roberto Morassut PD 28%
Others 8%
Total 100%

M5S primary election edit

As it previously did in different occasion, also the Five Star Movement decided to hold a primary election to choose its mayoral candidate. Many candidates took part in the closed primary which was held online on 23 February 2016. Virginia Raggi, one of four members of the City Council elected for the M5S in 2013, won the primary with 45% of votes.[8]

Voting system edit

The voting system is used for all mayoral elections in Italy, in the city with a population higher than 15,000 inhabitants. Under this system voters express a direct election for the mayor or an indirect election voting for the party of the candidate's coalition. If no candidate receives 50% of votes, the top two candidates go to a second round after two weeks. This gives a result whereby the winning candidate may be able to claim majority support, although it is not guaranteed.[9]

The election of the City Council is based on a direct choice for the candidate with a preference vote: the candidate with the majority of the preferences is elected. The number of the seats for each party is determined proportionally.[9]

Parties and candidates edit

This is a list of the parties (and their respective leaders) which participated in the election.

Political party or alliance Constituent lists Leader
Left-wing coalition Left for Rome
(incl. SEL, PRC, PCdI, AET, POS and FaS)
Stefano Fassina
Fassina for Mayor
Centre-left coalition Democratic Party Roberto Giachetti
Democrats and Populars
(incl. UDC, CD and DemoS)
Federation of the Greens
Italy of Values
Radicals Federalists Lay Ecologists
Lay Civic Socialists
Five Star Movement Virginia Raggi
Centre-right coalition Forza Italia Alfio Marchini
Marchini List
Popular Rome
Storace List
Right-wing coalition Brothers of Italy Giorgia Meloni
LeagueUs with Salvini
Italian Liberal Party
Popular Federation for Freedom
(incl. PpI and NCDU)

Opinion polling edit

Results edit

Summary of the 2016 Rome City Council and Mayoral election results
 
Candidates 1st round 2nd round Leader's
seat
Parties Votes % Seats
Votes % Votes %
Virginia Raggi 461,190 35.26 770,564 67.15 Five Star Movement 420,435 35.32 29
Roberto Giachetti 325,835 24.91 376,935 32.85  Y Democratic Party 240,637 17.19 6
Giachetti for Mayor 49,457 4.15 1
Democrats and Populars 17,378 1.46
Radicals Federalists Lay Ecologists 14,165 1.19
Lay Civic Socialists 7,716 0.64
Federation of the Greens 5,827 0.49
Italy of Values 3,085 0.25
Total 302,265 25.40 7
Giorgia Meloni 269,760 20.62  Y Brothers of Italy 146,054 12.27 4
With Giorgia Meloni for Mayor 40,441 3.39 1
LeagueUs with Salvini 32,175 2.70
Italian Liberal Party 10,749 0.90
Popular Federation for Freedom 4,146 0.34
Total 233,565 19.63 5
Alfio Marchini 143,829 10.99  Y Alfio Marchini for Mayor 56,686 4.76 2
Forza Italia 50,842 4.27 1
Popular Rome 15,453 1.29
Storace List 7,391 0.62
Christian Revolution 1,747 0.14
Liberal Network 1,225 0.10
Italian Building Site Movement 1,124 0.09
Total 134,468 11.30 3
Stefano Fassina 58,498 4.47  Y Left for Rome 46,774 3.93
Fassina for Mayor 6,006 0.50
Total 52,780 4.43
Simone Di Stefano 14,865 1.13 CasaPound 14,118 1.18
Alessandro Mustillo 10,371 0.79 Communist Party 9,917 0.83
Dario Di Francesco 8,021 0.61 Talking Cricket List – No Euro 4,772 0.39
Pensioners' Union 1,131 0.09
Movement for Rome 1,032 0.08
Centre League 719 0.06
With Joy! Long Live Italy 281 0.02
Total 7,885 0.66
Mario Adinolfi 7,992 0.61 The People of Family 7,480 0.62
Carlo Rienzi 2,760 0.21 Codacons 2,578 0.21
Alfredo Iorio 2,641 0.20 Fatherland 2,576 0.21
Fabrizio Verduchi 1,310 0.10 Christian Italy 1,185 0.09
Michel Emi Maritato 873 0.06 Assotutela 878 0.07
Total 1,307,945 100.00 1,147,499 100.00 4 1,190,130 100.00 44
Eligible voters 2,363,776 100.00 2,363,776 100.00
Did not vote 1,015,736 42.97 1,178,496 49.86
Voted 1,348,040 57.03 1,185,280 50.14
Blank or invalid ballots 40,095 2.97 37,781 3.18
Total valid votes 1,307,945 97.03 1,147,499 96.82
Source: Ministry of the Interior

Municipi election edit

 
Result of municipi elections.

All the presidents were elected on the second round, since none obtained more than 50% of votes on the first round of voting. The president of Municipio X wasn't elected since the municipio was under the administration of a Special Commissioner nominated after the municipal council had been dissolved in 2015 due to mafia association.

Table below shows the results for each municipio with the percentage for each coalition on the second round:

Municipio M5S Centre-left Right-wing Elected President Party
I 49.2 50.8 Sabrina Alfonsi PD
II 48.3 51.7 Francesca Del Bello PD
III 62.9 37.1 Roberta Capoccioni M5S
IV 68.2 31.8 Roberta Della Casa M5S
V 67.8 32.2 Giovanni Boccuzzi M5S
VI 72.9 27.1 Roberto Romanella M5S
VII 64.8 35.2 Monica Lozzi M5S
VIII 59.1 40.9 Paolo Pace M5S
IX 65.0 35.0 Dario D'Innocenti M5S
X Municipal Council and President suspended
XI 61.9 38.1 Mario Torelli M5S
XII 56.9 43.1 Silvia Crescimanno M5S
XIII 64.7 35.3 Giuseppina Castagnetta M5S
XIV 61.9 38.1 Alfredo Campagna M5S
XV 58.6 41.2 Stefano Simonelli M5S

Source: Municipality of Rome - Electoral Service

References edit

  1. ^ a b Rosie Scammell, "Rubbish on the streets, corruption in the air: Rome looks for a clean-up candidate", The Guardian, 12 June 2016
  2. ^ "Five Star Movement candidate Virginia Raggi could become Rome's mayor". The Age. 5 June 2016. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  3. ^ "Comunali [Scrutini] Comune di ROMA - Elezioni del 19 giugno 2015 (ballottaggio)". Dipartimento per gli Affari Interni e Territoriali. Ministero Dell'Interno. Archived from the original on 30 June 2016. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  4. ^ a b Rosie Scamell (20 June 2016). "Anti-establishment candidates elected to lead Rome and Turin". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  5. ^ John Phillips (20 June 2016). "Rome elects first female mayor in breakthrough for Five Star Movement". The Telegraph. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  6. ^ "The Holy See cracks down on leaks about its scandalous finances". The Economist. 7 November 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
  7. ^ "Primarie Pd Roma 2016. I dati definitivi" (in Italian). 8 March 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  8. ^ "Virginia Raggi candidata sindaco di Roma del M5S" (in Italian). Panorama. 24 February 2016. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  9. ^ a b "ELEZIONI AMMINISTRATIVE 2016 - IL DOSSIER" (PDF). Ministry of Interior. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 June 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2016.