Potenza administrative elections 2024: date, candidates and polls

Potenza 2024 administrative elections: the engines are warming up in view of the municipal elections which, barring surprises, should be merged for the first round of the European elections as already happened five years ago for a sort of election day.
After winning the 2019 local elections by a handful of votes in the run-off, the current mayor of Potenza Mario Guarente may not be the centre-right candidate again.
The feeling is that in Potenza a decision on the mayoral candidates will be made only after clarity has been made in the Region, given the regional elections in Basilicata which will be held on 21 and 22 April.
In the meantime, however, the entry into the field of municipal councilor Pierluigi Smaldone should be noted.
While waiting for the polls, here is a guide to the Potenza 2024 administrative elections with the probable date of the vote, the possible mayoral candidates and the dictates of the electoral law with which the citizens will elect their next mayor.
read also Local elections 2024, when do you vote? Date and Municipalities to vote Potenza 2024 administrative elections: the date In 2019 the administrative elections in Potenza were held on 26 May.
On the same day the polls opened throughout Italy for the European elections and in Piedmont also for the regional elections.
Even if an official communication from the government has not yet arrived, everything would suggest a merger in 2024 too: in this case the first round of the local elections in Potenza would be held on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 June.
As per the regulations, the possible run-off would be held two weeks later but it remains to be seen whether the government will maintain the double voting day – polls also open on Mondays until 3pm – as done recently.
The electoral law The electoral law of administrative elections in Italy is majority-based as regards the election of the mayor, while the distribution of councilors takes place in a proportional manner.
Since Potenza is a municipality with more than 15,000 inhabitants, if no candidate in the first round obtains an absolute majority then a run-off will be held between the two most voted.
If there is a perfect head-to-head tie, the oldest candidate will be elected mayor.
To guarantee the formation of a solid majority and consequently substantial governability, the lists linked to the winning mayoral candidate will be allocated 60% of the seats; the remaining seats on the Council will then be assigned to the other lists in a proportional manner through the "D'Hondt method".
At the division of seats, a total of 32 councilors excluding the mayor will be elected.
All lists and groups of lists of candidates that have exceeded the threshold of 3% of valid votes will be admitted.
As regards the voting methods, in municipalities with more than 15,000 inhabitants, split voting is permitted, with the voter being able to express up to two preferences while maintaining gender equality (one man and one woman).
read also Local elections, mayoral election ballot: how it works and how to vote The candidates In the 2019 local elections, the Northern League member Mario Guarente, thanks to a victory in the ballot by just 200 votes, became the new mayor of Potenza.
Five years later the situation is not the best for the mayor, so much so that for a long time in the centre-right there has been talk of a candidacy of Alessandro Galella, current regional councilor for agriculture of Basilicata, who however will eventually run in the region.
Everything is to be decided also in the centre-left, where first the Democratic Party and the 5 Star Movement will have to decide what they will do in the regional elections and then we will start to think about Potenza too.
City councilor Pierluigi Smaldone, elected in 2019 from the Potenza Città Giardino list, has long been announced as the candidate of the Potenza Ritorna civic coalition.