Italians vote for mayors of Rome, Milan, other key cities

Nearly all the mayoral races in the biggest cities, including Rome, Turin, Naples and Bologna, are expected to see runoffs. Runoffs will be held October 17-18 in municipalities with more than 15,000 people between the top two vote-getters if no single candidate garners more than 50% of the ballots.

Rome: Millions of people in Italy started voting Sunday for new mayors, including in Rome and Milan, in an election widely seen as a test of political alliances before nationwide balloting just over a year away.

The two days of voting ends on Monday and the first results are expected afterwards. But many voters will have to wait two weeks to learn who their mayor will be.

Runoffs will be held October 17-18 in municipalities with more than 15,000 people between the top two vote-getters if no single candidate garners more than 50% of the ballots.

Nearly all the mayoral races in the biggest cities, including Rome, Turin, Naples and Bologna, are expected to see runoffs. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala has told supporters he thinks they might be able to win enough votes to give him another five-year term without a runoff.

Around 12 million people, or roughly 20% of Italy’s population, are eligible to vote in the mayoral races.

Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi, a prominent populist 5-Star Movement figure, has been fighting an uphill battle to keep her office. Opinion polls indicated that the likely two top vote-getters in the 22-candidate field will be a centre-left Democratic and a right-wing candidate who is backed by anti-migrant League leader Matteo Salvini and far-right leader Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy party with neo-fascist roots.

When Raggi took the helm of the city in 2016, she inherited a mess, and many of the Italian capital's problems persist. Piles of uncollected trash still blighted the city, several subway stations were shut down for months for maintenance and aging buses often broke down on their routes, sometimes going on fire, during her tenure.

Salvini and Meloni, officially allies in a right-wing alliance, have been warily sizing each other up, since both have ambitions to be Italian premier. A parliamentary election is due in spring 2023, but both leaders have been pressing for earlier elections.

The 5-Star Movement, currently Parliament's largest party, has suffered internal bickering.

How the mayoral campaign alliances fare in this month’s municipal races will be dissected as a possible indication of Italians’ sentiment when they next vote for national leadership.

Voters in southern Calabria in the “toe” of the Italian peninsula are also electing a governor, replacing one who died of cancer while in office last year.

AP