Centre-left candidate Alessandra Todde on Monday claimed victory over centre-right candidate Paolo Truzzu to become Sardinia's new governor with a handful of votes still to be counted.
Todde held a 0.4% lead over Truzzo, by 45.4% to 45%, after 1825 of 1844 polling stations reported, and Truzzo conceded after acknowledging that the difference could not be made up.
Todde has thus become the Mediterranean island's first woman governor.
"According to the data in our possession, our victory is looming, I am the first female governor of Sardinia," she said in the small hours.
"We will hold a press conference tomorrow morning because it is right and proper to wait for the data to become official since there are still some sections being counted, but from the data we have had and verified, a victory looms.
"I am very happy and very proud, I believe that today we can write a page of history for Sardinia".
Todde, 55, is former deputy president of the leftwing populist 5-Star Movement (M5S) and former deputy industry minister under Mario Draghi.
She was the candidate for the so-called 'broad field' alliance between the M5S and the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), along with some small leftwing parties.
Truzzu, 51, is a leading member of Premier Giorgia Meloni's rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party and mayor of Cagliari.
Nuoro-born Todde, an engineer with two degrees, has lived most of her life outside her native island, working in eight different countries including the United States, Spain, the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands.
Truzzi, a Cagliari-born political science graduate with two daughters, has been mayor of the Sardinian capital since 2019.
His candidacy was imposed by Meloni over the League's choice, incumbent Christian Solinas of the Sardinian Action Party.
The election was seen as a test of whether the 'broad field' alliance between the PD and the M5S could compete at a national level with the dominant rightwing alliance of FdI, the League and the centre-right post Berlusconi Forza Italia (FI) party.
PD leader Elly Schlein and M5S leader and ex premier Giuseppe Conte flew to Cagliari from Rome for the ballot count.
Schlein said "the wind is changing, although some people would not have bet on (this result)".
Conte said "Sardinia has chosen Todde, it's an unforgettable day".
In pre-election opinion polls, Truzzu held a five-point lead over Todde.
However, in the final results, the centre-right alliance was set to get around 49% of the vote while the 'broad field' was heading for around 43%.
FdI looked like becoming top party by about a point from the PD, with the M5S third.
Tech magnate, local hero and former Democratic Party (PD) governor Renato Soru was third with 8.7% and the last, leftist and regionalist candidate, Lucia Chessa, was heading for 1%.
Conceding defeat, Truzzu said: "This morning I called Alessandra Todde and congratulated her." He said "I told her I would see her again in the regional council.
"We really lost by a hair, about two thousand votes out of 750 thousand Sardinians who went to vote.
"The responsibility for the defeat is mine alone".
"In Cagliari, there was more of a vote against me than for Todde," added the defeated mayor and centre-right candidate.
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