PAVIA. The electoral marathon begins on Saturday 9 June and will end tomorrow evening, Sunday 10th: voting will take place today and tomorrow (from 7am) until 11pm. In Pavia (as in other 121 municipalities in the province) people will vote to renew the municipal council and to elect the new mayor, as well as for the renewal of the European Parliament. The counting of the gray ballots for the European elections will begin immediately after closing; the one for the blue municipal ballots will begin on Monday at 2pm.
the rules
The mayor is elected in 122 municipalities in the province of Pavia: here is what they are and how the preference mechanism works
Anna Ghezzi
08 June 2024
The numbers
60,499 people from Pavia will vote (31,671 women and 28,823 men) to elect the new mayor of Pavia and the 32 members of the next city council. We will also vote for the renewal of the European Parliament and in this case the voters of the city of Pavia are 58,694: the number is lower than that for the municipal elections because the voters residing abroad are registered in the lists of the embassies of the countries of residence .
Given that you will have to show up at the polling station with a valid identity document and electoral card and that for those who do not have one, the municipal offices will be open both today and tomorrow, starting with the municipal elections, the people of Pavia will have the opportunity to choose between five mayoral candidates .
Following the order in which they appear on the ballot paper, the alternative will be between Francesco Grisolia, 72 years old, candidate for mayor of the Communist Workers’ Party; Michele Lissia, 42 years old, candidate of the centre-left supported by the Alleanza Verdi Sinistra, Italia Viva, Cittadini per Pavia, Pavia a colori, Azione, Let’s centre, Movimento 5 stelle and Democratic Party; Alessandro Cantoni, 58 years old, centre-right candidate supported by Pavia Prima, Pavia Ideale, Fratelli d’Italia, Forza Italia and Lega; Paolo Walter Cattaneo, 60 years old, candidate of the Communist Refoundation and Francesco Signorelli, 55 years old, candidate of Power to the People.
The rules for municipal elections
Split voting is permitted in municipal elections, in the sense that it is possible to vote for a mayoral candidate and give preference to a councilor candidate from a list different from the one or those that support the mayor voted for. However, gender representation is mandatory in both municipal elections and European elections. Anyone wishing to indicate more than one preference by writing the names of city councilor candidates must necessarily alternate between a man and a woman. In the event that two city councilor candidates of the same sex are indicated, only the first of the preferences will be considered valid.
In the case of Pavia, the electoral law provides that if one of the candidates obtains 50 percent plus one of the valid votes cast, he will be proclaimed mayor in the first round. If no one manages to exceed the threshold of 50 percent plus one, the two most voted candidates will compete in the run-off, an additional round that will be held in 15 days, exactly on Sunday 23 June. In that case, victory will simply go to whoever gets the greatest number of votes. The last recommendation is not to enter the voting booth with your smartphone: it is absolutely forbidden to avoid voters photographing their newly assigned preference and encouraging the illicit practice of vote swapping.
European elections, when and how to vote in Italy
The European elections
In this case, as well as in Pavia city, there will be voting in all the Municipalities of the Province. So the 438,390 voters of the province (224,677 women and 213,713 men) will find 12 lists on the gray ballot. Pavia is included in the North West district which includes, in addition to Lombardy, Piedmont, Valle d’Aosta and Liguria. If the lists, as mentioned, will be 12, the candidates who will submit themselves to the voters’ judgment in the province of Pavia will be eight. This is Angelo Ciocca, 49 years old, outgoing League MEP; Elena Lucchini, 40 years old, Lega; Silvia Piani, 37 years old, Forza Italia; Elena Nai, 50 years old, Brothers of Italy; Simone Verni, 48 years old, 5 Star Movement; Paola Mazzola, 58 years old, 5 Star Movement; Daniela Di Cosmo, Action; Cristian Romaniello, 35 years old, Peace, land and dignity.
The rules for the European elections
To vote in the European elections, after ticking the list, you can express up to three preferences, but for them to be valid, the candidates do not all have to be of the same sex. Otherwise only the first of the preferences will be valid. Unlike municipal elections, split voting is not valid: in other words, it is not possible to vote for a party and express a preference for one or more candidates present in another list. There are 76 seats available for Italy and they are assigned using the proportional method, that is, they are distributed among the lists in proportion to the votes received. However, a team must obtain at least 4% to enter.
