2008 Rome municipal election

Snap municipal elections were held in Rome on 13–14 April 2008, at the same time as the Italian general elections.

2008 Rome mayoral election
13–14 April 2008
and 27–28 April 2008
Turnout73.7% (first round)
63.1% (second round)
 
Candidate Gianni Alemanno Francesco Rutelli
Party People of Freedom Democratic Party
Popular vote 675,111 759,252
Percentage 40.7% 45.8%
Popular vote (2nd) 783,725 676,850
Percentage (2nd) 53.7% 46.3%
Mayor before election

Walter Veltroni

 Elected Mayor

Gianni Alemanno

The incumbent Mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni (PD), resigned on 13 February 2008 to run as the main candidate of the centre-left coalition in the general election.

The center-right coalition candidate Gianni Alemanno, who was defeated by Veltroni in 2006, faced the centre-left coalition candidate, the incumbent Minister of Culture and Deputy Prime Minister Francesco Rutelli, who had previously hold the position of Mayor of Rome from 1993 to 2001.

Gianni Alemanno unexpectedly won the election on the second round and became the first centre-right directly elected mayor of Rome.

Background

Following the fall of Prodi's government in January 2008,[1] Veltroni, as national secretary of the newborn Democratic Party (PD), was chosen to run as the main candidate for the centre-left coalition in the April snap general election and resigned to concentrate on the national campaign.[2]

Mayoral election

The centre-right coalition was led by Gianni Alemanno (PdL). Alemanno rejected a formal alliance with the far-right parties, but his critics emphasized that his victory was greeted by crowds of supporters, among them far right skinheads.[3]

The centre-left coalition was led by Francesco Rutelli, who continued to maintain a huge popularity across the city.

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.

For municipi the voting system is the same, not referred to the mayor but to the president of the municipio.

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 %
Gianni Alemanno PdL PdL-MpA-PRI 675,111 40.73 783,725 53.66
Francesco Rutelli PD PD-SA-IdV 759,252 45.80 676,850 46.34
Francesco Storace LD 55,041 3.32
Luciano Ciocchetti UDC 52,055 3.14
Others 116,124 7.01
Eligible voters 2,347,502 100.00 2,347,502 100.00
Voted 1,729,287 73.7 1,481,795 63.1
Blank or invalid ballots 71,704 21,220
Total valid votes 1,657,583 1,460,575

Summary of the 2008 Rome City Council election results

 
Parties and coalitions Votes % Seats
The People of Freedom (Il Popolo della Libertà) PdL 559,55936.6%35
Alemanno List (Lista Alemanno) LA 18,7341.2%1
Others 27,8831.8%0
Alemanno coalition (Centre-right) 606,17639.6%[4]36
Democratic Party (Partito Democratico) PD 520,72334.0%18
The Rainbow Left (La Sinistra l'Arcobaleno) SA 69,0794.5%2
Italy of Values (Italia dei Valori) IdV 50,7043.3%1
Rutelli List (Lista Rutelli) LR 41,8802.7%1
Others 32,0822.1%0
Rutelli coalition (Centre-left) 714,46846.7%22
The Right (La Destra) LD 51,6143.4%1
Union of the Centre (Unione di Centro) UDC 50,6823.3%1
Others 106,9317.0%0
Total 1,529,871100%60
Votes cast / turnout 1,729,28773.7%
Registered voters 2,347,502
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
I 50.8 34.1 Orlando Corsetti PD
III 51.0 37.9 Dario Marcucci PD
V 52.7 35.8 Ivano Caradonna PD
VI 53.8 35.2 Gianmarco Palmieri PD
IX 54.7 34.9 Susana Ana Maria Fantino SA
X 51.8 36.2 Sandro Medici SA
XI 53.1 32.7 Andrea Catarci SA
XV 53.0 38.7 Giovanni Paris PD
XVI 50.7 37.9 Fabio Bellini PD
XVII 50.0 41.9 Antonella De Giusti PD

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
II 46.5 53.5 Sara De Angelis PdL
IV 49.6 50.4 Cristiano Bonelli PdL
VII 51.6 48.4 Roberto Mastrantonio SA
VIII 47.5 52.5 Massimo Lorenzotti PdL
XII 46.6 53.4 Pasquale Calzetta PdL
XIII 48.7 51.3 Giacomo Vizzani PdL
XVIII 44.6 55.4 Daniele Giannini PdL
XIX 46.5 53.5 Alfredo Miloni PdL
XX 38.6 61.4 Gianni Giacomini PdL

Source: Municipality of Rome - Electoral Service

Notes
  1. Elisabeth Rosenthal, "With Flawed System Unchanged, Italy Sets Elections for April", The New York Times, 7 February 2008.
  2. Steve Scherer, "Veltroni Resigns as Rome Mayor to Take on Berlusconi (Update1)", Bloomberg.com, 13 February 2008.
  3. Squires, Nick (2008-09-08). "Italian politicians 'praise' fascist era of Benito Mussolini". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 2010-05-03. (in English)
  4. 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.
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