Italians vote in crucial mayoral elections for largest cities
People in Italy have begun voting to choose mayors in local elections, regarded as a test for the popularity of center-left Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
Polls opened at 0500 GMT on Sunday with voters selecting members of 1,300 municipal councils in largest cities in two-round elections that will be completed on June 19.
Some 13 million people are eligible to vote. Polling stations will close at 2100 GMT and initial results are expected to be announced late Sunday.
The focus is on the country’s largest cities of Rome, Milan, Bologna, Naples and Turin.
The capital has been without a mayor for more than six months as Ignazio Marino, a member of Renzi’s Democratic Party, was forced to resign because of an expenses scandal.
Opinion polls show that Virginia Raggi, a mayoral candidate from the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, will win the election in the capital.
"Political parties have eaten Rome. We either change everything, or everything remains as it has always been,” Raggi said in a televised speech, asking Romans to vote for transparency.
The Five Star Movement hopes that its victory in Rome will provide it with a platform to transform itself to the country’s main opposition group in the run-up to national elections scheduled for June 2018.
The movement’s victory would deliver a huge blow to Renzi, who has campaigned for Roberto Giachetti in the Rome mayoral election.
The next mayor has to deal with the capital’s debt of over €13bn, twice its annual budget.
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