Local elections, military candidates' lists in Campania to go on holiday

"Military candidates for elections to the European Parliament, parliamentary or local elections (...) are placed on special special licence for the duration of the election campaign' reads Article 1484 of the Code of Military Order. In municipalities with a population of less than one thousand inhabitants, candidate lists have no obligation to be signed by voters (the minimum number of signatures, 25, is triggered above that threshold). The combination of these two factors has resulted in the emergence of so-called 'bogus' lists in the run-up to the municipal elections on 8 and 9 June. These lists are mainly made up of military personnel not resident in the municipality for which they are standing, and their sole purpose is to enable candidates to obtain a month's paid leave. The phenomenon was reported by the daily newspaper 'Il Mattino', which counted 25 such lists in Campania, including the province of Caserta (which holds the record with ten), Benevento, Avellino and Salerno.

'We had already denounced to politicians many months ago that the arrival in small municipalities of 'fake lists', with candidates who are totally external to the villages, is a distortion of democracy. A mockery for communities,' commented Marco Bussone, national president of Uncem (National Union of Municipalities, Communities and Mountain Authorities). 'The first citizen Salvatore Geremia, from Campania, wrote this in these hours,' Bussone continued. He is right. Along with many other colleagues from all over Italy who are calling for greater commitment from the Viminale on this issue. That is, to put a curb on lists that arrive in municipalities but are totally 'external' to them, with candidates who have never been in those municipalities. They arrive by chance, often with lists of parties, or that refer to parties, but also 'civic' lists, built in batteries for several voting centres in the same territory. A detriment to everyone. Even for the country's candidates, who have always lived and built it'.

What is the solution? 'Uncem,' says the president, 'has been saying this for some time: introduce a minimum number, ten or fifteen, of signatures even in the smallest countries. In this way we isolate those who only come for strange gain, such as permits for administrative commitment or some particular aim of conquest. This is a question of democracy, which has never been addressed so far, to be tackled at the Viminale. Let the prefects also be with Uncem in demanding political action to safeguard the municipalities'.

A bill approved by the Senate in March 2023 and now before the Chamber of Deputies intervenes on this point. On 28 February last, the Constitutional Affairs Commission of Montecitorio mandated the rapporteur to report favourably to the Assembly on the text that intervenes on the counting of voters for the validity of municipal elections and, precisely, on the number of subscriptions for the presentation of candidates in the elections, introducing the obligation to sign the lists also for the band of municipalities with less than one thousand inhabitants. But the go-ahead has not yet arrived and for the June vote the 'fake lists' have resurfaced.