We go to ballot. After the latest update on the scrutiny of the 4 sections “blocked” for consultations at the Municipality of LecceAdriana Poli Bortone and Carlo Salvemini they will have to challenge each other again.
Here are the definitive data: Adriana Poli Bortone obtained 26,053 votes (49.95%) while Carlo Salvemini 24,373 (46.73%)
The situation when a section is missing
For now, with a section still missing, the situation is this: Adriana Poli Bortone, candidate of the centre-right, 25,703 votes (49.87%), her lists have collected 24,126 votes (50.23%); Carlo Salvemini, centre-left candidate, 24,126 votes (46.1%), his lists 23,841 (47.80%).
Poli Bortone: «Too many oddities and null ballots»
«Starting from the oddities of these elections, consider that in some sections the invalid ballots are close to 10%.
I’ll mention one, for example, section 54: there were 51 invalid ballots. And right in my neighborhood.” Anomalies that Poli Bortone highlighted in a press conference on the sidelines of the electoral commission’s verification. «And in some sections, we have received news that the number of different voters does not even coincide». If there is one certain fact, however, according to the candidate: «After five years of government, Salvemini has lost as many as 4 thousand votes. This is a severe verdict on the outgoing mayor and his council which has underlined a clear disconnect between the centre-left and the deepest feelings of the city.” Therefore the first attack on his opponent kicks off the second phase of the electoral campaign: «The excesses must be aware that for the next five years they risk finding themselves with a mayor who does not enjoy the consensus of the majority of the city. And they have only one option: vote in the runoff. Vote, vote to complete the turning point and open a new page in the history of Lecce. I am sure that the will of the people of Lecce, their strong feeling of change will prevail over the organizational and mobilization machine that the left has set up.”
Salvemini: «One voter out of two chose me»
«Congratulations to my opponent for the result obtained». Salvemini’s comment arrived just under an hour later. “We are both entitled to run for the final victory – he said at the press conference called after the senator’s communications – according to the spirit of the law which legitimizes whoever gets the most votes in this case in the run-off.” Then a telegram to the senator and her centre-right opponents: «I won a run-off and I won a direct lesson in the first round, I believe I am considered a democratically elected representative in my city, a legitimate representative of everyone. I don’t see the result as a sort of De profundis, but rather as the recognition that one voter in two feels part of this experience of transformation of the city.” And one more message to the conservative coalition: «My sense of institutions, the respect that I always express towards my adversaries must not be misunderstood as surrender, as weakness and even as resignation».
What happen
Throughout the very long day of Monday, the former senator’s preferences rose and fell from the 50 percent threshold: one vote more than half of the consensus and the centre-right candidate would have won in the first round. But this did not happen. At a certain point the counting of ballots had stopped due to anomalies found in four polling stations. And everything froze.
With the 98 sections scrutinized out of 102 in total, Adriana Poli Bortone had stopped at 24,749 votes, or 49.64%. While her ten lists had totaled 24,136 preferences, or 50.03%. While Carlo Salvemini with 23,430 of him stood at 47%.
While his 9 lists had received 23,151 votes, i.e. 47.99%. In the next few hours – but there is still no certainty – the electoral commission could finish the scrutiny of the other three sections and decree the existence of the consultations. The possibility of a run-off on 23 and 24 June between Poli Bortone and Salvemini is increasingly likely.
 and Salvemini (46.73%)){kind=link}