The original election date was 26 May 2019, but a snap election was called upon the resignation of the incumbent president Marcello Pittella, a member of the Democratic Party (PD), on 24 January 2019. After the subsequent dissolution of the Regional Council, Vice President Flavia Franconi (PD) became acting president.
The centre-left coalition had won each regional election in Basilicata since 1995 with a large margin. In the 2018 Italian general election, both the centre-right coalition and the M5S substantially improved their performance: the centre-right, for the first time, tied with the centre-left (including LeU, which in 2018 was not a member of the coalition led by PD) and the M5S won about double the votes gained by the PD and LeU combined.[2]
Electoral law
In addition to the newly elected president, the candidate for president of the coalition who ranks second automatically gains one seat (the first of his coalition or single party list), in the Regional Council, according to the Tatarella Law of 1995. The remaining 19 seats will be assigned on a province basis, proportionally with respect to the population of the provinces of Potenza and Matera.[3]
The new electoral law follows proportional representation with a threshold of 3% for party lists and 4% for lists in coalitions that failed to reach the 8% threshold.[4] If the first coalition wins 30% of the vote, the parties collectively receive 11 (55%) to 14 seats (67%). For the presidential election,[4] a candidate needs to win by a simple majority (first-past-the-post).[5] To cast his vote, the voter can make a single mark on the name of a presidential candidate, and in this case the vote is not transmitted to any party list.[4] If the voter marks the symbol of one of the lists, the vote is automatically transferred to the candidate supported by that list.[4] Since the approval of the new regional electoral law in 2018, split voting is not possible, i.e. voting on a list and a candidate who is not supported by it.[6]
The voter can express two preferences, reserving the second to a candidate of a different sex, otherwise the second preferences will not be valid.[3] Among the innovations there is the introduction of gender equality (each party list cannot have more than 60% of candidates of the same sex), and the abolition of the price list and of the split vote.[7]
Campaign
On 20 February 2019, governor Marcello Pittella announced he would not run for a second term,[8] and decided to support Carlo Trerotola (PD), the new centre-left candidate.[9] With the retirement of Pittella, the majority of the left-wing Free and Equal (LeU) returned in the centre-left coalition with the list Progressives for Basilicat".[10] A joint list of left-wing parties ran alone with Valerio Tramutoli as its presidential candidate.[11]
3.92%)
