1997 Rome municipal election

1997 Rome mayoral election
Turnout	74.0%
Mayor before election; Francesco Rutelli;	Elected Mayor ; Francesco Rutelli;

Municipal elections were held in Rome on 16 November 1997 to elect the Mayor of Rome and 60 members of the City Council.

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 , 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[]

Summary of the 1997 Rome City Council election results
Candidates		Votes	%	Leaders seats	Parties	Votes	%	Seats

	Francesco Rutelli	983,902	60.42	–	Democratic Party of the Left	281,832	21.98	15
					Communist Refoundation Party	112,628	8.78	6
					Rutelli List	89,790	7.00	5
					Federation of the Greens	83,321	6.50	4
					Italian People's Party	71,123	5.55	3
					Italian Renewal	29,387	2.29	1
					Pannella List	20,878	1.63	1
					Democratic Socialists	20,859	1.63	1
					Democratic Union	17,922	1.40	–
					Italian Republican Party	7,946	0.62	–
	Pierluigi Borghini	585,367	35.94	1	National Alliance	308,745	24.08	14
					Forza Italia – United Christian Democrats	129,391	10.09	6
					Christian Democratic Centre – Pact for Rome	47,681	3.72	2
					Federalist Greens	5,846	0.46	–
					United Italy	3,528	0.28	–
	Pino Rauti	26,389	1.62	1	Tricolour Flame	23,380	1.82	–
		12,586	0.77	–	Liberal Socialists	10,218	0.80
	Raffaele D'Ambrosio	7,988	0.49	–	Humanitas	9,101	0.71	–
	Sforza Ruspoli	5,965	0.37	–	Civic list	4,246	0.33	–
	Marina Larena	4,091	0.25	–	Humanist Party	2,687	0.21	–
	Giancarlo Cito	2,233	0.14	–	Southern Action League	1,751	0.14	–
Total		1,628,521	100.00	2		1,282,260	100.00	58
Source: Ministry of the Interior