LECCE – There are 101 municipalities in which there will be a run-off for the election of the mayor. The vote is scheduled for Sunday 23 and Monday 24 June. The data is not yet definitively consolidated and could undergo some variations in relation to the sections where the ballot recounts are still underway. TO Leccefor example, Adriana Poli Bortone it is stuck at 49.64%, but there are 4 sections to ‘recount’ because the data was deemed inconsistent.
In fact, the meeting of the Electoral Commission of the Court for the verification of the 4 sections, 25, 26, 35 and 88, whose votes were suspended by the Prefecture because of inconsistent results, is still underway in Lecce.
The presidents and secretaries of the polling stations involved are participating in the operations to verify consistency between tables and final minutes and the representatives of the coalitions in the field: on the one hand the delegates of the centre-left for Carlo Salveminioutgoing mayor, on the other those of the center-right for Adriana Poli Bortone.
From the outcome of the test it will be known whether there will be a run-off or whether the centre-right candidate, close to the 50% threshold, will win in the first round. At the end of the meeting the outgoing mayor Carlo Salvemini called a press conference but the Commission’s work could continue until late.
In the first round, voting was held in 3,698 municipalities. The run-off is foreseen in those with more than 15 thousand inhabitants if no candidate has obtained more than 50% of the votes. In particular, Bari, Florence and Perugia are the main cities and another dozen capitals.
Salvemini is optimistic and looks ahead to the ballot
«Yesterday’s vote sent back a clear signal: the game is wide open, we are waiting for the verification operations on the four sections that are not yet definitive to be concluded in order to give our best in the next fifteen days». This was stated by the outgoing mayor of Lecce Carlo Salvemini, re-nominated for the centre-left, awaiting verification by the Electoral Commission on four sections. In Lecce, based on the counts of 98 seats out of 102, the centre-right candidate Adriana Poli Bortone is at 49.64 while Salvemini is at 47%.
«I thank the 24 thousand people of Lecce – adds Salvemini – who were at our side in the first round, their affection, their passion, their strength were decisive for this result and will be even more so in the second round. I tell them to continue to mobilize and that there is no risk of a lame duck, even if it is evoked as a mere propaganda strategy by the centre-right.”
Salvemini then remarks: «They declared: we will chase them away forever. We are still here, standing, ready to overturn the result and win to move forward together with the citizens of Lecce. The outcome of the first round polls gives us the possibility, within reach, of confirming ourselves as the city’s government. And follow up on that beautiful season of change that is taking Lecce into the future.”
