Referendum Vote and First Round of Communal Elections in Italy

The first round of local elections as well as five referendums on the justice system will be held in Italy on a single ‘election day’, June 12.

The second round of the local elections across Italy will be two weeks later, on June 26.

In the local elections, around 1,000 cites and towns will be called to the polls, including 26 provincial capitals, five of which are also regional capitals: Genoa in Liguria, L’Aquila in Abruzzo, Palermo in Sicily and Catanzaro in Calabria.

The provincial capitals are Alessandria, Asti, Barletta, Belluno, Catanzaro, Como, Cuneo, Frosinone, Genoa, Gorizia, L’Aquila, La Spezia, Lodi, Lucca, Messina, Monza, Oristano, Padua, Palermo, Parma, Piacenza, Pistoia, Rieti, Taranto, Verona and Viterbo.

All EU citizens living as residents in Italy and registered as resident in the local commune are legally entitled to vote in certain Italian elections, specifically:

• Local Municipal Elections
• European Parliamentary Elections

Note: Registration to vote in either one of these elections does not automatically qualify a voter for the other. Registration must be made separately for each.

An EU citizen may also stand as a candidate at municipal elections, under the same conditions as an Italian national.

To be eligible to vote, a person must be at least 18 years old. They must not have been banned from voting in another EU state.

Municipal Elections: The Voting Process

When applying for residency, the applicant can also request that their name be added to the electoral roll (Lista Elettorale). If residency permission has already been granted, they will need to provide proof of address and residency to register on the voter’s roll and be issued with a voting card (Tessera Elettorale).

Up to ten days before elections, voters are sent the Electoral Certificate (Certificato Elettorale) which has the personal identifying data and information on where to go to vote.

Registration to vote must be made by 30 December of the year preceding elections.

Voting day

The Electoral Certificate and valid photo identification (passport) must be presented when voting. The voter will be given two cards, one to elect a candidate to the commune council and one to the city council.

Click here for more info about the election in Lucca (in Italian)

Referendums

The referendums include one on abolishing the so-called Severino law that stops people definitively convicted of several serious crimes, including corruption, from being able to stand in European, national and regional elections for six years. This referendum was proposed by the League and Radicali parties. Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi was ejected from the Senate in 2013 and was banned from running in elections for several years under the Severino law after being convicted in a tax-fraud case.

Another referendum is about stopping prosecutors changing careers to become judges and vice-versa.

Another two referendums regard cases in which people can be detained on remand and the election of the members of the judiciary’s self-governing body, the CSM.

The fifth referendum declared is on lawyers’ voting to assess the performance of magistrates.

For detailed info on the Italian Referendum Vote click here