Sassari. Between today and tomorrow the people of Sassari will decide the future of the city administration. In fact, together with the European elections, municipal elections are also called, in an unprecedented double electoral day on Saturday and Sunday. Voting will be held on Saturday 8 June from 3pm to 11pm and Sunday 9 June from 7am to 11pm. In the city, 106,349 people are called to vote, of which 55,681 are female and 50,668 male. Once the polls close, counting for the European elections will begin immediately, while that for the municipal elections will start on Monday at 2 pm. All the information is published and constantly updated on the website www.comune.sassari.it, as will happen – in real time – for turnout data and results.
The possible run-off round is set for two weeks, again on two days, but the canonical ones are on Sunday, from 7am to 11pm, and Monday, from 7am to 3pm.
The outcome, at the time of writing, is complicated to interpret. That is, whether everything will end with a victory in the first round or whether there will be a run-off. In recent weeks there have been many more or less reliable polls. The real fact is that no opinion poll was commissioned (nor disseminated as long as it was permitted). The only reference remains that of attendance at the final rallies. But physical participation in political initiatives is by no means a guarantee of victory or defeat.
The broad field is nominating Giuseppe Mascia as mayor, while the Civici, who have governed Palazzo Ducale since 2019, propose Nicola Lucchi as Nanni Campus’ successor. The outsider is the rector of the University Gavino Mariotti, candidate of the centre-right. Finally, the two independents, the retired magistrate Mariano Brianda, for the Constituent Assembly for Sassari, from the centre-left area, and Giuseppe Palopoli, until a few months ago in Forza Italia and in 2019 elected councilor with the civic coalition.
It was a rather sleepy electoral campaign, animated in the last week by the controversy that emerged at the confrontation between mayoral candidates last Tuesday organized by the San Giuseppe – San Paolo neighborhood committee at the Hotel Grazia Deledda. A “bad” question raised by the moderator, the journalist Pier Giorgio Pinna, on the criminal investigation involving the centre-right mayoral candidate Gavino Mariotti led the latter to take the decision to contest the format of the debate and consequently to abandon the comparison, which at that point, reduced to just two candidates (Brianda and Mascia, Lucchi had left early due to previous commitments while Palopoli, once again, had given up on participating), no longer made sense to continue.
