ROME: Less than 20 per cent of eligible Italian voters cast their ballot in the first hours of parliamentary elections on Sunday, in what looks set to become a new historic low in voter turnout.
Polls opened at 7 am. At 12 pm, turnout stood at 19 per cent, down on figures from the 2018 elections, which saw the lowest turnout ever recorded after World War II with some 73 per cent overall, according to the Interior Ministry in Rome.
Sunday’s election might end up even lower than that, with experts predicting a turnout of below 70 per cent. Some 51.5 million people are eligible to vote in the parliamentary elections, with polling closing at 11 pm.
The right-wing alliance led by Giorgia Meloni and her nationalist Brothers of Italy party is expected to win the race and even garner an absolute majority, according to opinion polls, putting Meloni on track to become Italy’s first female prime minister.
The midday figure was lower than at the same time in 2018, when Italy recorded its lowest turnout since World War II with some 73 per cent overall, according to the Interior Ministry in Rome. Sunday’s election might end up even lower than that, with experts predicting a turnout of below 70 per cent.
Some 51.5 million people are eligible to vote in the parliamentary elections, with polling closing at 11 pm.
The right-wing alliance led by Giorgia Meloni and her nationalist Brothers of Italy party is expected to win the race and even garner an absolute majority, according to opinion polls. Meloni could become Italy’s first female prime minister.
The bloc also includes the right-wing populist Lega led by Matteo Salvini and the conservative Forza Italia under former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Meloni’s party, deemed critical of the European Union, nationalist and sometimes even racist, dominates the alliance. Many fear Italian politics will shift to the right if the alliance wins. Meloni’s Brothers of Italy could garner more votes that Salvini’s Lega and Berlusconi’s Forza Italia combined.
In the run-up to the elections, rivals from the left-wing and centre of the political spectrum focused on attacking each other instead of forming a joint opposition against the right-wing parties, triggering expectations of a low voter turnout.
Exit polls are due to be published at 11 pm, when polling stations close, while first preliminary official results are to follow during the night.
In Italy, a country whose political landscape has been marked by turmoil over the past years, weeks go by until the first session of the new parliament and the formation and inauguration of a new government following elections. — dpa
