And now, les jeux sont faits. Polls closed at 11pm on Sunday 9 June. In Polesine, for the European elections (the counting took place during the night), just over 50% of the 198,620 eligible voters voted. A data lower than that of five years ago, when turnout reached 63.9%.
All things considered, they were roughly 100 thousand voters who, between Saturday afternoon and Sunday, went to the polling stations and deposited their ballots in the ballot box. The turnout in our province was slightly lower than the regional average, which remained at the same level 52.5%, but higher than the national one, which at half past midnight was still below the fateful share of 50%. At provincial level, the best result was for Pontecchio where 72% of voters participated in the consultation, while the lowest figure was recorded in Giacciano with Baruchella closing the two-day election with 36.4% turnout. 19 municipalities are below 50%, including Adria (43.9%) and Porto Viro (44%).
However, the race to the polls, between Adige and Po, was more intense in the 32 municipalities where there was also voting for the mayor. Taking only the data relating to the administrative elections into consideration, the final turnout stood at 61.25% overall, with approximately 65 thousand voters out of 109,854 eligible voters who went to the polls. A “race” led by those Municipalities in which there was only one mayoral candidate: Gaiba and San Bellino, in particular, set participation records with 76.5% and 67.6% turnout, “interspersed” by Pontecchio, with 72.4%, and Costa di Rovigo, at 71.15%. The lowest result in the province, however, was that of Calto with 50.2%%.
With Occhiobello having not yet communicated the turnout data at half past midnight (it was 54.5% at 7pm), among the most important tests, from a political point of view, those of Lendinara, where 57.54% voted (compared to 69.8%); Castelmassa, which closed with 62.23% (previous 65.9%); and Ariano nel Polesine, which recorded a turnout of 57.7% (against 61.3%).
Separate discussion for Rovigo city. In the 55 seats of the capital, 25 thousand voters went to the polls, setting the participation bar at 59%: a much lower figure than the 68.4% achieved in the first round in 2019.
Already on Saturday evening, at the close of the first day of voting, turnout had stopped below 20% (precisely 19.2%): almost 40% of people from Rovigo, therefore, decided, perhaps in deference to tradition, to vote on Sunday. A choice that two of the six mayoral candidates also made. And if on Saturday afternoon Ezio Conchi (at 4pm sharp in Boara), Palmiro Franco Tosini (at 5pm, in his Bosaro), Antonio Rossini (at 5.12pm in San Bortolo), Valeria Cittadin (at the time of 18, at the Donatoni schools), yesterday morning it was the turn of Federico Frigato, who voted in Sarzano, and Edoardo Gaffeo who put his ballot in the ballot box at noon sharp in Concadirame.
Regional councilor Cristiano Corazzari, resident of Stienta, also went to vote yesterday. “I like to vote on Sunday… also because I remember that there is no voting on Monday”, he writes on social media with his usual irony.
But on Monday, that is today, there will be little to joke about. Because the polls will open at 2 pm sharp. And, within a few hours, 31 Polesine municipalities will officially have their new mayor. For Rovigo city, however, if none of the candidates exceeds 50% of the votes, they will return to the polls on Sunday 23 and Monday 24 June for the run-off. No: it doesn’t end here.
