Anticipation is growing in the city. Today could be the decisive day. The electoral commission, chaired by Francesco Ottaviano, will conclude the control work on the four sections still pending and, if the results are known, in the evening the people of Lecce could have a new mayor or the certainty of having to return to the polls on 23 June for the ballot. Meanwhile, the two candidates continue to duel at a distance. «The finish line is just a few meters away and we will reach it», declares Carlo Salvemini confidently. «The evidence is solid and indisputable: Salvemini was rejected by the voters and there is a new majority in the city», replies Adriana Poli Bortone.
The shadow of the appeal
Over the results there is the shadow of the appeal to the TAR by the two candidates with the consequent risk that the date of the probable run-off round will also be postponed. At the moment, the official data from the Ministry of the Interior which refer to 98 sections out of 102, see Adriana Poli Bortone, candidate of the centre-right, in the lead with 49.64% of the votes, followed by Carlo Salvemini with 47% of the votes. The checks aim to shed light on a series of inconsistencies between the minutes drawn up in sections 25, 26, 35 and 88 and the real number of valid, invalid or blank ballots of the approximately 2200 voters who cast their votes in those polling stations. The electoral commission, which took office on Tuesday at 4pm in the premises of the local police, after having examined section 25, continued its work yesterday by checking sections 26 and 35.
Confidential controls
Maximum confidentiality regarding the outcome of the checks while waiting for the section 88 checks to be concluded today. The anomalies would not have allowed the polling station presidents to close the election minutes according to regular procedure. And to shed light on the anomalies found, the presidents and secretaries of the polling stations were summoned. Representatives of the opposing sides also participated in the work. In the event of an appeal to the TAR, it is not excluded that the judges decide to annul the results of the now famous sections by returning the voters of those seats to vote. Adriana Poli Bortone doesn’t lack many votes to overcome the fateful threshold of 50% and avoid a runoff. A challenge to which the outgoing mayor Carlo Salvemini is determined, convinced that he will emerge victorious, as he openly declared.
The disoriented citizens
The citizens of Lecce, however, have no certainties. Confused and disoriented, they follow the events hoping that the situation can be clarified as soon as possible. «All the counting operations of the 102 sections concluded regularly with communication of the results and the preference votes granted to each candidate and each list», states Salvemini. «Considering the findings of the central electoral office, over 50 percent of citizens chose to send Salvemini home, rejecting his work and his 7 years of administration. In this electoral round the centre-right lists exceeded 50% of the votes. This is a fact that testifies to an incontrovertible success”, insists Poli Bortone.
