Twenty-four votes were missing Adriana Poli Bortone to become mayor of Lecce in the first round. And they are the ones who will force the people of Lecce into a runoff. At the end of an electoral campaign full of controversy and with a series of dubious episodes at the polls, the final count decreed that the centre-right stopped at 49.95% of the preferences, against 46.73% for the centre-left. And therefore the people of Lecce will have to return to the polls on 23 and 24 June.
Immediately after the conclusion of the count, Poli Bortone spoke of «strange circumstances» and announced appeals in the event of defeat in the run-off: «In the unfortunate and very remote hypothesis of a victory for Salvemini, a long and serious period of uncertainty would emerge, with appeals and there is a need for extreme clarity on what happened in the first round, starting from those sections in which even one voter out of 13 saw their vote cancelled”.
Yes, because the law provides that to appeal, all voting operations must be completed first, therefore also the run-off. Only afterwards – in the event of an unfortunate defeat – will the center-right be able to assert its reasons and ask for a recount of the ballots in a handful of polling stations. Because 24 votes are nothing…
