Election in Italy: Low turnout is emerging

In Italy – once again – the election of a new parliament is pending. Participation is likely to be historically low. It remains to be seen whether the right-wing alliance that leads the polls or the center-left parties will benefit from this.

In Italy, the turnout for the parliamentary elections has been historically low. At 7:00 p.m., four hours before the polling stations closed, only around 51 percent of those eligible to vote had cast their votes, the Interior Ministry announced. In the 2018 elections, it was around 59 percent at the time. At the end of the day, Italy registered the lowest voter turnout of its post-war period at just under 73 percent – this value could now be significantly undercut again.

According to the evaluation, the inflow was particularly weak in the south of the country in the regions of Calabria, Apulia, Campania and Basilicata as well as on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, at times well below 40 percent.

There were still queues

Despite the low turnout, there were queues in front of some polling stations, which caused some outrage. This was also due to the fact that one strip of the two completed ballot papers – one each for the House of Representatives and one for the Senate – had to be carefully torn off before they went into the ballot box. This additional procedure to combat voter fraud delayed the process. “I’ve never seen a snake like that,” said Forza Italia boss Silvio Berlusconi.

Legal alliance likely to win

After the resignation of the previous head of government, Mario Draghi, the country faces a hard jolt to the right. The right-wing bloc led by Giorgia Meloni, which includes Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and Matteo Salvini’s right-wing populist Lega, recently led the polls. Meloni is the head of the far-right Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party, which is likely to become the strongest force.

“Let’s make history together,” Meloni tweeted that morning. Their allies also posted a number of election messages on social networks on Sunday, as they had done the day before. They ignored a requirement to refrain from such statements on the day before and on the day of the election. The Lega, for example, published some insulting tweets about their political opponents.

Meloni waits until the last

Some of the top candidates already cast their votes in the morning, such as Matteo Salvini from the right-wing populist Lega in Milan, the social democrat Enrico Letta in Rome or central politician Matteo Renzi in Florence. President Sergio Mattarella voted in his hometown of Palermo, the leader of the Social Democrats, Letta, in his home town of Rome.

Meloni had also announced that he would be voting in a school in southern Rome in the morning, but then did not appear as planned. According to a spokeswoman, she now only wants to vote shortly before the polling stations close. The nationalist and EU-critical politician could become the first woman to become Prime Minister in Italy. She began her political work in the youth organization of a neo-fascist party.

The main opponents of the right-wing alliance are the Social Democrats under party leader Letta. They could become the strongest force among the centre-left parties, which were well behind the right-wing coalition in the polls.

Up to 40 percent were still undecided at the end

Around 30 to 40 percent of the voters, according to the pollsters, were still undecided. Your choice could be decisive for the question of how clear the expected victory of the right-wing alliance will be. For the first time fewer MPs will be elected, the two chambers of parliament have been reduced by around a third to a total of 600 seats.

According to the first projections, a preliminary result of the election is expected for Monday morning.