2006 Rome municipal election

In May 2006, the city of Rome held elections to choose its new mayor and city leaders. The people of Rome voted on May 28th and 29th to pick the Mayor of Rome and 60 members of the City Council. They also chose leaders for the nineteen areas, called municipi, that make up the city.

Two main candidates were competing for the job of mayor. The current mayor, Walter Veltroni, who came from a left-wing political group, was running again. His opponent was Gianni Alemanno, a national-conservative and the Minister of Agricolture.

In the end, Walter Veltroni won the election by a large amount of votes. He was chosen to serve another five years as the mayor of Rome.

Background

In April 2006, a national election was held. The centre-left coalition, led by Romano Prodi, won by a small margin over the centre-right coalition led by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. To avoid giving an advantage to the centre-left, Berlusconi had set the national election date in early April, preventing it from coinciding with municipal elections in big cities like Rome, Milan, Naples, and Turin. The municipal elections were later set for 28–29 May 2006.

The main candidates for mayor of Rome were the current mayor Walter Veltroni, who was very popular, and Gianni Alemanno, a minister in the government. During the campaign, Alemanno faced criticism for his connections with certain political groups and for a controversial TV appearance just before the election.

Voting system

In Italy, cities with more than 15,000 people use a special voting system for choosing their mayor. Voters can pick a mayor directly or choose a party that supports a candidate. If no one gets more than half of the votes, the top two candidates have a runoff election two weeks later. This helps ensure the winner has strong support.

When electing members of the City Council, voters choose a candidate and can give their preference to one. The candidate with the most preferences wins, and the number of seats each party gets depends on how many votes they received.

Parties and candidates

This section shows the main parties and their leaders that took part in the election.

Results

In May 2006, Rome held elections to choose its mayor and city council members. The main candidates were Walter Veltroni, who was already the mayor, and Gianni Alemanno. Veltroni won the election and continued to serve as mayor for another five years.

Summary of the 2006 Rome City Council and Mayoral election results

Candidates		Votes	%	Leader's seat	Parties		Votes	%	Seats
	Walter Veltroni	926,932	61.42	–		The Olive Tree	441,914	33.82	23
						Veltroni List	80,328	6.15	4
						Communist Refoundation Party	70,918	5.43	3
						Federation of the Greens	62,262	4.76	3
						Moderates	57,339	4.39	2
						Italy of Values	29,822	2.28	1
						Rose in the Fist	25,695	1.97	1
						Party of Italian Communists	19,883	1.52	1
						Rainbow Rome	8,524	0.65	–
						Consumers' List	2,046	0.16	–
						United Consumers	1,943	0.15	–
						Italian Democratic Socialist Party	1,157	0.09	–
						Total	801,831	61.36	38
	Gianni Alemanno	559,810	37.09	Y		National Alliance	254,337	19.46	13
						Forza Italia	132,869	10.17	6
						Union of Christian and Centre Democrats	56,763	4.34	2
						Love for Rome	10,150	0.78	–
						Social Action	7,553	0.58	–
						Christian Democracy for Autonomies	7,276	0.56	–
						New Italian Socialist Party	5,333	0.41	–
						Forza Roma	3,466	0.27	–
						Italian Republican Party	2,057	0.16	–
						Avanti Lazio	1,327	0.10	–
						Independent Movement for Animal Rights	850	0.07	–
						Pensions, Houses and Work	698	0.05	–
						New Generation	661	0.05	–
						Real Democratic Party	538	0.04	–
						Total	483,878	37.03	21
	Rita Casillo	5,816	0.39	–		Communist Initiative	5,334	0.41
	Luca Romagnoli	4,015	0.27	–		Tricolour Flame	3,848	0.29	–
	David Gramiccioli	3,530	0.23	–		Dolphin National Movement	3,149	0.24	–
	Alessandra Sarti Magi	2,655	0.18	–		New Force – National Social Front	2,603	0.20	–
	Valentina Valenti	2,593	0.17	–		Third Pole	2,650	0.20	–
	Roberto De Santis	1,091	0.07	–		Ecologists	943	0.07	–
	Umberto Nardinocchi	1,076	0.07	–		Active Democracy	985	0.08	–
	Marina Larena	707	0.05	–		Humanist Party	631	0.05	–
	Stefano Fuccelli	618	0.04	–		European Animalist Party	562	0.04	–
	Maurizio Giorgetti	351	0.02	–		Italian Dream	303	0.02	–
Total		1,509,194	100.00	1			1,306,717	100.00	59
Eligible voters		2,341,773	100.00
Did not vote		796,688	34.02
Voted		1,545,085	65.98
Blank or invalid ballots		35,891	2.32
Total valid votes		1,509,194	97.68
Source: Ministry of the Interior

Municipi election

All the leaders of each area in Rome were chosen in the first round of voting. The table below shows the results for each area, with the percentages for each group.

Source: Municipality of Rome - Electoral Service