2016 Rome municipal election

← 2013 5 June 2016 (first round) 19 June 2016 (second round) 2021 →
Turnout	57.0% 4.2 pp (first round) 50.1% 6.9 pp (second round)
Candidate Virginia Raggi Roberto Giachetti Party Five Star Movement Democratic Party Alliance Centre-left 1st Round vote 453,806 320,170 Percentage 35.25% 24.87% 2nd Round vote 770,564 376,935 Percentage 67.15% 32.85%
First round results by municipi
Second round results by municipi Red municipi are those with most votes for Giachetti and Yellow those for Raggi.
Mayor before election Francesco Paolo Tronca (Special commissioner) Elected Mayor Virginia Raggi M5S

Snap municipal elections were held in Rome on 5 and 19 June 2016, to elect the Mayor of Rome and 48 members of the City Council, as well as the fifteen presidents and more than 400 councillors of the 15 municipi in which the municipality is divided.

The elections were called following the fall of the former Mayor of Rome Ignazio Marino, who was ousted from office after more than half of the members of the City Council resigned in October 2015.^[1]

The first round of voting on 5 June produced no outright winner, resulting in a run-off election on 19 June between Virginia Raggi, the candidate of the Five Star Movement (M5S), and Roberto Giachetti, member of the Democratic Party (PD).^[1] Raggi won the mayoral election with two-thirds of the vote,^[2] and her party alone won a majority in the City Council of Rome with 29 of the 48 seats.^[3]

The results were widely reported as a major breakthrough for the Five Star Movement, which had previously been seen as a protest party rather than a significant political force.^[4][5] At the same round of elections, M5S also won Turin municipal elections.^[4]

Background

On 12 October 2015, the incumbent mayor Ignazio Marino announced his resignation amidst an accusation of expense scandal that had been made by some opposition parties (especially Five Star Movement and the right-wing Brothers of Italy), but on 29 October he retired the resignation. Nevertheless, on 30 October he was ousted from his position after 26 of the 48 members of the City Council resigned. The mayorlater was replaced by a government-appointed commissioner and snap municipal elections were called.^[6]

Centre-left primary election

As in 2013, the centre-left coalition decided to hold the primary election on 6 March 2016 to decide its mayoral candidate. There were 6 main candidates, all from Democratic Party, since the left-wing parties decided to break the alliance and present their own mayoral candidate.^[7]

Among the most popular candidates there were deputies Roberto Giachetti and Roberto Morassut. More than 47,000 citizens took part to the primary election which was won by Giachetti:

M5S primary election

As it previously did in different occasion, also the Five Star Movement decided to hold a primary election to choose its mayoral candidate. Many candidates took part in the closed primary which was held online on 23 February 2016. Virginia Raggi, one of four members of the City Council elected for the M5S in 2013, won the primary with 45% of votes.^[8]

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 election for the mayor or an indirect election 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.^[9]

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.^[9]

Parties and candidates

This is a list of the parties (and their respective leaders) which participated in the election.

Opinion polling

Results

Summary of the 2016 Rome City Council and Mayoral election results

Candidates		1st round		2nd round		Leader's seat	Parties		Votes	%	Seats
		Votes	%	Votes	%
	Virginia Raggi	461,190	35.26	770,564	67.15	–		Five Star Movement	420,435	35.32	29
	Roberto Giachetti	325,835	24.91	376,935	32.85	Y		Democratic Party	240,637	17.19	6
								Giachetti for Mayor	49,457	4.15	1
								Democrats and Populars	17,378	1.46	–
								Radicals Federalists Lay Ecologists	14,165	1.19	–
								Lay Civic Socialists	7,716	0.64	–
								Federation of the Greens	5,827	0.49	–
								Italy of Values	3,085	0.25	–
								Total	302,265	25.40	7
	Giorgia Meloni	269,760	20.62	–	–	Y		Brothers of Italy	146,054	12.27	4
								With Giorgia Meloni for Mayor	40,441	3.39	1
								League – Us with Salvini	32,175	2.70	–
								Italian Liberal Party	10,749	0.90	–
								Popular Federation for Freedom	4,146	0.34	–
								Total	233,565	19.63	5
	Alfio Marchini	143,829	10.99	–	–	Y		Alfio Marchini for Mayor	56,686	4.76	2
								Forza Italia	50,842	4.27	1
								Popular Rome	15,453	1.29	–
								Storace List	7,391	0.62	–
								Christian Revolution	1,747	0.14	–
								Liberal Network	1,225	0.10	–
								Italian Building Site Movement	1,124	0.09	–
								Total	134,468	11.30	3
	Stefano Fassina	58,498	4.47	–	–	Y		Left for Rome	46,774	3.93	–
								Fassina for Mayor	6,006	0.50	–
								Total	52,780	4.43	–
	Simone Di Stefano	14,865	1.13	–	–	–		CasaPound	14,118	1.18	–
	Alessandro Mustillo	10,371	0.79	–	–	–		Communist Party	9,917	0.83	–
	Dario Di Francesco	8,021	0.61	–	–	–		Talking Cricket List – No Euro	4,772	0.39	–
								Pensioners' Union	1,131	0.09	–
								Movement for Rome	1,032	0.08	–
								Centre League	719	0.06	–
								With Joy! Long Live Italy	281	0.02	–
								Total	7,885	0.66	–
	Mario Adinolfi	7,992	0.61	–	–	–		The People of Family	7,480	0.62	–
	Carlo Rienzi	2,760	0.21	–	–	–		Codacons	2,578	0.21	–
	Alfredo Iorio	2,641	0.20	–	–	–		Fatherland	2,576	0.21	–
	Fabrizio Verduchi	1,310	0.10	–	–	–		Christian Italy	1,185	0.09	–
	Michel Emi Maritato	873	0.06	–	–	–		Assotutela	878	0.07	–
Total		1,307,945	100.00	1,147,499	100.00	4			1,190,130	100.00	44
Eligible voters		2,363,776	100.00	2,363,776	100.00
Did not vote		1,015,736	42.97	1,178,496	49.86
Voted		1,348,040	57.03	1,185,280	50.14
Blank or invalid ballots		40,095	2.97	37,781	3.18
Total valid votes		1,307,945	97.03	1,147,499	96.82
Source: Ministry of the Interior

Municipi election

All the presidents were elected on the second round, since none obtained more than 50% of votes on the first round of voting. The president of Municipio X wasn't elected since the municipio was under the administration of a Special Commissioner nominated after the municipal council had been dissolved in 2015 due to mafia association.

Table below shows the results for each municipio with the percentage for each coalition on the second round:

Source: Municipality of Rome - Electoral Service