Italians in second day of elections

Italians went to the polls for a second day of voting today in the southern region of Basilicata, where regional elections were delayed by two weeks because of a legal dispute over a party list.

Elections were held in 13 of Italy’s 20 regions on April 3 and 4. The centre right coalition of Premier Silvio Berlusconi won just two of the seats up for grabs, a stinging defeat that has thrown the government into crisis. Basilicata is held by the centre-left.

Voters were also electing councils in 26 cities and one province where no candidate gained the required 50% threshold in a first round of voting.

In one closely-watched race in Venice, two centre-left candidates were pitted against each other, with local magistrate Felice Casson facing the more moderate former mayor of the city, Massimo Cacciari.

Cacciari entered the race to oppose Casson, whose bid to run for mayor without resigning from his post as magistrate was seen by many as breaching the separation between political and judicial powers.

After 14 hours of voting yesterday, polls were to stay open today from 7am until 3pm local time (6am to 2pm Irish time). More than 1.7 million Italians were eligible to vote, the Interior Ministry said.

As polls closed yesterday, voter turnout in the Basilicata election was at 51%, the ministry said.