Low voter turnout: Italians decide on new parliament

A new parliament will be elected in Italy today. So far participation has been even lower than last time. The polling stations are open until late in the evening. According to polls, there could be a shift to the right.

In the first hours of the parliamentary elections in Italy, only a few citizens cast their votes. As announced by the Ministry of the Interior in Rome, the turnout at 12 p.m. was around 19 percent. That was even a little less than in the 2018 election – at that time the country had registered the lowest turnout in parliamentary elections in the post-war period at just under 73 percent.

Experts predicted an even lower voter turnout of even less than 70 percent this time. Polling stations open at 7 a.m. and close at 11 p.m. 51 million Italians have been called to vote.

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 head of the Social Democrats Letta in his home town of Rome.

Sometimes long waiting times due to complicated ballot papers

Long queues formed in front of some polling stations, for example in Rome or Palermo, which caused outrage in some cases. This was also due to the fact that one strip had to be carefully torn off from the two filled out ballot papers – one each for the House of Representatives and one for the Senate – before they could be thrown into the ballot box. This additional procedure to combat voter fraud delayed the process.

According to the latest polls, a right-wing alliance led by the Fratelli d’Italia and party leader Giorgia Meloni is clearly ahead – by around 15 to 20 percent. The alliance includes Salvini’s Lega and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia. The Five Star Movement under former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has recently caught up. Your election program now has clear leftist traits.

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.

Right-wing politicians sent out a number of messages

“Let’s make history together,” Meloni tweeted that morning. As the day before, their allies – such as the right-wing Lega – also posted a number of election messages on social networks. They ignored a requirement to refrain from such statements on the day before and on the day of the election.

The main opponents 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.

With information from Elisbath Pongratz, ARD Studio Rome