One voter in five voted yesterday, on the first day of open polls, in the municipal elections involving 37 centers in the province of Macerata. At 11pm yesterday, after eight hours with the polls open, the turnout for the administrative elections was close to twenty percent, standing at 19.59%. In Recanati 20.87% of those entitled to vote had voted, 19.45% in Potenza Picena. Data above 30% only in Sefro (32.5%), Fiastra (33.97%), Castelsantangelo (34.93%) and Monte Cavallo (39.29%). The figure for the European elections is lower, stopping at 15.05% in the province, a value also driven by the municipal ones. In Macerata turnout was 13.69%, 11.25% in Civitanova.
You have until 11pm today to vote in both the European and municipal elections. Those who did not wait to go to the polls are the candidates for mayor of Recanati and Potenza, the two main centers of the province called to elect the mayor and renew the municipal councils. Both the three candidates from Leopardi’s Municipality (the outgoing Antonio Bravi, his predecessor Francesco Fiordomo and the centre-right challenger Emanuele Pepa) and the two Potentini candidates (the outgoing Noemi Tartabini and the former PD parliamentarian Mario Morgoni) presented themselves to the polls yesterday. There are 37 municipalities in the province in which the administrations will have to be renewed: 72 mayoral candidates are running, over 90 lists are in support. Only in Recanati, if none of the three candidates exceed 50% of the votes, there will be a run-off in two weeks. However, there were eight municipalities where only one candidate presented itself: Colmurano (Mirko Mari), Loro Piceno (Robertino Paoloni), Poggio San Vicino (Sara Simoncini), Montelupone (Rolando Pecora), Sant’Angelo in Pontano (Vanda Broglia) , Sefro (Pietro Tapanelli), Serrapetrona (Silvia Pinzi), Serravalle (Rinaldo Rocchi).
In these cases the only opponent to beat will be abstentionism. In fact, for the vote to be valid, at least 40% of voters must participate in the vote and at least 50 + 1% of voters must have expressed their preference for the only list in the running. Otherwise the mayor cannot be appointed and a commissioner will be called. In short, for municipalities with only one list, already tonight – when the turnout data will be definitive – there will be a first verdict, i.e. whether or not the threshold of 40% of voters will be exceeded; then we will have to wait for the ballot to certify that at least 50 + 1% of voters have expressed their preference for the only list in the running. But at that point it would almost be a formality.
