2001 Rome municipal election

Municipal elections were held in Rome on 13 May 2001, the same day of Italian general elections.

2001 Rome mayoral election

13 May 2001 and 27 May 2001
Turnout	79.4% (first round) 74.2% (second round)
Candidate Walter Veltroni Antonio Tajani Party Democrats of the Left Forza Italia Popular vote 800,275 746,846 Percentage 48.3% 45.1% Popular vote (2nd) 871,930 799,363 Percentage (2nd) 52.2% 47.8%
Mayor before election Francesco Rutelli Elected Mayor Walter Veltroni

The outgoing Mayor Francesco Rutelli, prevented to run for a third consecutive term by the Italian law on local government, had resigned from his position on 8 January that year to run as the main candidate of the centre-left coalition in the national general election.

The two main candidates were the former Minister of Cultural Heritage, former Deputy Prime Minister and current secretary of the Democrats of the Left (DS) party Walter Veltroni and the liberal-conservative MEP Antonio Tajani, a prominent member of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI) party.

Since none of the candidates obtained the majority of votes on the first round, a second round vote was held on 27 May 2001.

Background

Following the end of the Legislature XIII of Italy, Rutelli was chosen to lead the centre-left coalition during the 2001 general election and resigned as Mayor of Rome on 8 January 2001, just two days after the end of the Great Jubilee on which he had spent all his second term.

Mayoral election

The centre-right coalition, led by Antonio Tajani, had been heavily defeated by Rutelli in the 1997 election. Tajani rejected a formal alliance with the far-right parties and preferred a liberal-conservative coalition, like the one which supported Silvio Berlusconi in the general election.

Thanks to the overlap with the general election, which saw a huge victor of the House of Freedoms alliance, the centre-right coalition unexpectedly succeeded to win the majority of votes across the city. Although a strong performance of his coalition, Tajani wasn't able to win the race and on the second round he had to concede to Veltroni, who showed to have a strong support in the city. Despite the lower number of votes, the centre-left coalition obtained the majority of seats in the City Council thanks to the electoral system's mechanisms.

Voting System

The voting system is used for all mayoral elections in Italy, in the city with a population higher than 15,000 inhabitants. Under this system voters express a direct choice for the mayor or an indirect choice voting for the party of the candidate's coalition. If no candidate receives 50% of votes, the top two candidates go to a second round after two weeks. This gives a result whereby the winning candidate may be able to claim majority support, although it is not guaranteed.

The election of the city council is based on a direct choice for the candidate with a preference vote: the candidate with the majority of the preferences is elected. The number of the seats for each party is determined proportionally.

Results

Candidate		Party	Coalition	First round		Second round
				Votes	%	Votes	%
	Walter Veltroni	DS	The Olive Tree	800,275	48.35	871,930	52.17
	Antonio Tajani	FI	House of Freedoms	746,846	45.12	799,363	47.83
	Others			107,970	6.53
Eligible voters				2,290,787	100.00	2,290,787	100.00
Voted				1,818,295	79.4	1,699,721	74.2
Blank or invalid ballots				163,204		28,428
Total valid votes				1,655,091		1,671,293

Summary of the 2001 Rome City Council election results

Parties and coalitions				Votes	%	Seats
		Democrats of the Left (Democratici di Sinistra)	DS	238,092	17.6%	15
		Veltroni List (Lista Veltroni)	LV	146,463	10.8%	9
		The Daisy (La Margherita)	DL	111,315	8.2%	7
		Communist Refoundation Party (Rifondazione Comunista)	PRC	61,728	4.6%	3
		Federation of the Greens (Federazione dei Verdi)	FdV	31,698	2.3%	2
		Others		24,706	1.8%	0
Veltroni coalition (Centre-left)				614,002	45.5%	[1]36
		National Alliance (Alleanza Nazionale)	AN	283,922	21.0%	11
		Forza Italia	FI	259,514	19.2%	11
		Christian Democratic Centre (Centro Cristiano Democratico)	CCD	41,148	3.0%	1
		Tajani List (Lista Tajani)	LT	37,393	2.8%	1
		Others		18,956	1.4%	0
Tajani coalition (Centre-right)				640,933	47.5%	24
	Others			94,755	7.0%	0
Total				1,275,337	100%	60
Votes cast / turnout				1,349,690	79.4%
Registered voters				2,290,787
Source: Ministry of the Interior

Municipi election

Table below shows the results for each municipio with the percentage for each coalition on the first round:

Municipio	Centre-left	Centre-right	Elected President	Party
II	42.5	51.1	Antonio Saccone	FI
V	52.4	40.5	Ivano Caradonna	DS
VI	50.9	41.8	Enzo Puro	DS
XVIII	41.3	51.6	Vincenzo Fratta	AN
XX	40.0	54.7	Massimiliano Fasoli	CCD

Table below shows the results for each municipio with the percentage for each coalition on the second round:

Municipio	Centre-left	Centre-right	Elected President	Party
I	52.6	47.4	Giuseppe Lobefaro	DL
III	53.7	46.3	Orlando Corsetti	DL
IV	51.2	48.8	Benvenuto Salducco	DL
VII	53.9	46.1	Stefano Tozzi	PRC
VIII	51.0	49.0	Giuseppe Celli	SDI
IX	52.9	47.1	Maurizio Oliva	FdV
X	53.7	46.3	Sandro Medici	PRC
XI	53.4	46.6	Massimiliano Smeriglio	PRC
XII	49.3	50.7	Paolo Pollak	FI
XIII	48.4	51.6	Davide Bordoni	FI
XV	51.5	48.5	Giovanni Paris	DL
XVI	54.1	45.9	Fabio Bellini	DS
XVII	49.8	50.2	Roberto Vernarelli	CCD
XIX	49.5	50.5	Marco Visconti	AN

Source: Municipality of Rome - Electoral Service

Notes

1. Despite it didn't win the majority of votes, the coalition won the majority bonus of seats granted by the electoral law to the alliance whose candidate is elected Mayor. This mechanism works just if no coalition obtains more than the 50% of votes.