1993 Rome municipal election

1993 Rome mayoral election
Turnout	78.7% (first round); 79.9% (second round)
Mayor before election; Franco Carraro;	Elected Mayor ; Francesco Rutelli;

Municipal elections were held in Rome on 21 November 1993 to elect the Mayor of Rome and 60 members of the City Council.

For the first time under the new electoral law the citizens could vote directly the mayor.

Background

With the Law of 25 March 1993, n. 81 was introduced the direct election of Mayor. In this way the form of government of the city, previously attributed to a parliamentary model, was neared at semi-presidential system. The same law fixed four years term of office for Mayor, later extended to five years.

The first direct-election of the Mayor of Rome took place in a period of changes for the Italian politics: the scandal called Tangentopoli, which highlighted pervasive corruption in the Italian political system, exposed in the 1992 Mani Pulite investigations, led to the collapse of the dominant Christian Democracy party and of its allies in the municipal politics.

Mayoral election

For the first time a leftist coalition, composed by the former-communist Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) and some other progressives party, took part in the election, presenting Francesco Rutelli as its mayoral candidate. Rutelli was a young politician who had been a member of the Italian Radicals then a member of the newborn Federation of the Greens.

The main opposition to Rutelli's coalition was represented by the neo-fascist candidate Gianfranco Fini. Fini was a young politician considered the inheritor of Giorgio Almirante's political knowledge in the Italian Social Movement (MSI). Fini and his party were quite popular in Rome: their popularity, originated from the Fascist regime, was increased by the political scandal which had invested the historical Christian Democracy (DC) and Italian Socialist Party (PSI). However Fini's popularity continued after the 1993 election, since all the candidates supported by the center-right coalition in the future elections would have been members of neo-fascist party National Alliance (AN).

Although the political crisis, Christian Democracy (DC) presented its candidate, Carmelo Caruso, who was supported also by the weak Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI).

Many other candidates took part in the election, all of them from very small parties, civic lists or associations. The most famous of this small party was the so called Love Party, which was in favor of sexuality in a libertarian sense and for this reason decided to present as candidate for Mayor the famous pornstars Moana Pozzi.

The election was distinguished by the active involvement of an unprecedented numbers of Italian nobles as either candidates or supporters, including members of the Barberini, Orsini, Chigi, and Borghese families.

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.

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
Candidate		Party	Coalition	Votes	%	Votes	%
	Francesco Rutelli	FdV	Alliance of Progressives	684,529	39.55	955,859	53.11
	Gianfranco Fini	MSI		619,309	35.78	844,030	46.89
	Carmelo Caruso	DC	DC-PSDI	197,801	11.43
	Renato Nicolini	PRC		143,364	8.28
	Others			85,714	4.63

Eligible voters				2,317,077	100.00	2,317,077	100.00
Voted				1,824,541	78.74	1,850,290	79.85
Blank or invalid ballots				93,824		50,401
Total valid votes				1,730,717		1,799,889

**Summary of the 1993 Rome City Council election results**
Parties and coalitions				Votes	%	Seats

	style="background-color:Template:Democratic Party of the Left/meta/color" \|	Democratic Party of the Left (Partito Democratico della Sinistra)	PDS	233,924	18.2%	18
	style="background-color:Template:Federation of the Greens/meta/color" \|	Federation of the Greens (Federazione dei Verdi)	FdV	136,753	10.6%	10
		Democratic Alliance (Alleanza Democratica)	AD	63,271	4.9%	5
	style="background-color:Template:Italian Radicals/meta/color" \|	Pannella List (Lista Pannella)	LP	45,082	3.5%	3
Rutelli coalition (Left)				479,030	37.2%	36
style="background-color:Template:Italian Social Movement/meta/color" \|	Italian Social Movement (Movimento Sociale Italiano)		MSI	430,278	33.4%	14
	style="background-color:Template:Christian Democracy (Italy)/meta/color" \|	Christian Democracy (Democrazia Cristiana)	DC	154,552	12.0%	6
	style="background-color:Template:Italian Democratic Socialist Party/meta/color" \|	Italian Democratic Socialist Party (Partito Socialdemocratico Italiano)	PSDI	11,333	0.9%	0
	style="background-color:Template:Independent (politician)/meta/color" \|	Others		17,552	1.4%	0
Caruso coalition (Centre)				183,437	14.3%	6
style="background-color:Template:Communist Refoundation Party/meta/color" \|	Communist Refoundation Party (Rifondazione Comunista)		PRC	103,259	8.0%	3
	Lay and Reformist Alliance (Alleanza Laica e Riformista)		ALR	30,818	2.4%	1
style="background-color:Template:Independent politician/meta/color" \|	Others			60,706	4.7%	0

Total				1,287,528	100%	60

Votes cast / turnout				1,824,541	78.7%
Registered voters				2,317,077

Source: Ministry of the Interior

References