1997 Rome municipal election
Municipal elections were held in Rome on 16 November 1997 to elect the Mayor of Rome and 60 members of the City Council.
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| Turnout | 74.0% | |||||||||||||||
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As a result of the election the outgoing Mayor Francesco Rutelli was re-elected on the first round with the 60% of votes.
Background
The 1996 general elections showed a strong performance by the centre-left coalition, especially in the city of Rome. Since that moment the political support to leftist parties in the Eternal City started to increase heavily, although the former-fascist National Alliance (AN) party continued to maintain a huge number of supporters across the city.
Mayoral election
The centre-right coalition was led by Pierluigi Borghini, a famous conservative businessman, while the centre-left governmental coalition was led by the outgoing Mayor Francesco Rutelli.
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 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | ||||
| Francesco Rutelli | FdV | The Olive Tree | 985,361 | 60.44 | |
| Pierluigi Borghini | AN | Pole for Freedoms | 586,083 | 35.95 | |
| Pino Rauti | MS-FT | 26,366 | 1.62 | ||
| Others | 52,818 | 2.02 | |||
| Eligible voters | 2,302,474 | 100.00 | |||
| Voted | 1,704,650 | 74.04 | |||
| Blank or invalid ballots | 69,636 | ||||
| Total valid votes | 1,635,014 | ||||
Summary of the 1997 Rome City Council election results
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| Parties and coalitions | Votes | % | Seats | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic Party of the Left (Partito Democratico della Sinistra) | PDS | 280,468 | 22.0% | 15 | ||
| Communist Refoundation Party (Rifondazione Comunista) | PRC | 112,014 | 8.8% | 6 | ||
| Rutelli List (Lista Rutelli) | LR | 89,279 | 7.0% | 5 | ||
| Federation of the Greens (Federazione dei Verdi) | FdV | 82,785 | 6.5% | 4 | ||
| Italian People's Party (Partito Popolare Italiano) | PPI | 70,597 | 5.5% | 3 | ||
| Others | 96,734 | 7.5% | 3 | |||
| Rutelli coalition (Centre-left) | 731,877 | 57.4% | 36 | |||
| National Alliance (Alleanza Nazionale) | AN | 306,964 | 24.1% | 15 | ||
| Forza Italia | FI | 128,397 | 10.0% | 6 | ||
| Christian Democratic Centre (Centro Cristiano Democratico) | CCD | 47,435 | 3.7% | 2 | ||
| Others | 9,437 | 1.0% | 0 | |||
| Borghini coalition (Centre-right) | 492,233 | 38.6% | 23 | |||
| Tricolour Flame (Fiamma Tricolore) | MS-FT | 23,227 | 1.8% | 1 | ||
| Others | 28,000 | 2.1% | 0 | |||
| Total | 1,275,337 | 100% | 60 | |||
| Votes cast / turnout | 1,704,650 | 74.0% | ||||
| Registered voters | 2,302,474 | |||||
| Source: Ministry of the Interior | ||||||