Centre-left candidate Alessandra
Todde looks set to beat centre-right candidate Paolo Truzzu by a
whisker and become Sardinia's new governor.
Todde held a 0.4% lead after almost 1600 of some 1800 polling
stations reported and with the final result expected in the
small hours of the morning.
Todde, who would thus become the Mediterranean island's first
woman governor, caught up after being behind in early counting,
and went into Monday night up by 45.4% to 45%.
Todde, 55, is former deputy head of the leftwing populist 5-Star
Movement (M5S) and former deputy industry minister under Mario
Draghi.
Truzzu, 51, is a 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.
Todde's lead grew with the arrival of votes from the big cities
like the capital Cagliari and Sassari where she boasted a
healthy lead, while Truzzu won in smaller towns like Oristano
and Olbia.
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%.
But the PD looked like becoming top party by about a point from
FdI, with the M5S third.
Tech magnate and former Democratic Party (PD) governor Renato
Soru was third with 8.5% and the last, leftist and regionalist
candidate, Lucia Chessa, was heading for 1%.
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.
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