Forty-one new mayors in the municipalities of the province of Potenza, voting last Saturday and Sunday, in addition to the regional capital. Numerous encores, but there is no shortage of new things, in large centers such as Venosa, and in small municipalities. Quorum reached in all municipalities with only one list running.
Between confirmations and surprises
It was an electoral round full of confirmations, starting from the municipalities with only one list running, where the quorum of 40 percent of voter turnout was expected to be reached. Confirmed, therefore, in Anzi, Banzi, Barile and Guardia Perticara respectively are the outgoing Maria Filomena Graziadei, Pasquale Caffio, Antonio Murano and Pasquale Montano. However, there is no shortage of surprises, at least compared to the forecasts. Remaining in the small towns, the outgoing Antonio Mosé Troiano was confirmed in San Paolo Albanese. He won with 79.34 percent of the vote. The other candidates in the running, Pasquale Tufaro and Pierfrancesca Pellegrini Strigaro, achieved 18.18 percent and 2.48 percent of votes respectively. Among the confirmations also the outgoing mayor of Rapone Felicetta Lorenzo re-elected with 54.19 percent of votes out of 655 voters, while the challenger Pasquale Francesco Amendola stood at 45.81. Felicetta Lorenzo will wear the tricolor sash for the fourth time.
In Sant’Angelo Le Fratte, the challenge between the former classmates, Vincenzo Ostuni (councillor of the former outgoing majority) and the outgoing mayor Michele Laurino was won by the former. Ostuni received 57.61 percent of 972 voters, while the former mayor running for a fourth term stopped at 42.39 percent. In Venosa, the city of Orazio, Franco Mollica was elected mayor with 53.84 percent of votes. He beat the outgoing five-star mayor Marianna Iovanni and the centre-right candidate Gianteo Tamburriello who stood at 31.70 and 14.46. Franco Mollica was also president of the Regional Council of Basilicata. He recently left Carlo Calenda’s Action because he did not share his party’s alliance with the centre-right in the Basilicata regional elections last April.
The municipal police station
In Avigliano, the municipal commissionerate, the election of Giuseppe Mecca as mayor was confirmed and he obtained 43.04 percent of the votes. The other candidates in the running, Angelo Summa and Carmine Vaccaro, instead stopped respectively at 33.43 percent of the votes and 23.53 out of 7,028 voters. This is a return of a centre-right mayor, as in Scanzano Jonico, another municipality under police administration. The Mecca council, in fact, had fallen and the municipality had been placed under commissionership, following the resignation of ten councilors of the majority.
