Liguria regional government, turnout plummets by 10 points in Imperia province. Genoa and La Spezia hold

According to data provided by the Ministry of the Interior via the Eligendo website, and available on the Regione Liguria website, at 11pm on 27 October, turnout for the regional elections was 34.68%. As for the provinces' data, in the metropolitan city of Genoa 37.34% voted, in the province of Savona 31.55%, in the province of La Spezia 35.6%, in the province of Imperia 27.15%. In 2020, at the same time, 39.8% had voted at the regional level, while in the metropolitan city of Genoa 40.09% had voted, in the province of Savona 41.18%, in the province of La Spezia 39.47%, in the province of Imperia 37.15%.

Striking is the figure for Imperia, the province with the lowest turnout ever: 27.15 per cent, 10 points lower than four years ago and still seven points lower than the regional average of 34.68 per cent. This is why some are beginning to suspect that behind such a low turnout there may be the hand of the powerful mayor Claudio Scajola, a leading Forza Italia exponent and former Minister of the Interior.

Turnout in both Genoa and La Spezia is holding up. In the capital, the figure for the first day of voting stands at 37.34%, above the regional average and less than 3 points below the previous round, a sign that Mayor Bucci has succeeded in getting his fellow citizens to vote. In La Spezia too, 35.6% is above the regional average, although 4 points below the 2020 average. Here too, La Spezia's Andrea Orlando, the centre-left's candidate for governor, managed to push turnout.

Voter turnout was down across the province of Savona, in all likelihood partly due to the flooding that hit the Valbormida on Saturday 26th. On Sunday 27 at 11 p.m., 31.55% of those eligible had voted: almost 10% less than in 2020. A drop comparable to that recorded in the province of Imperia and decidedly higher than that which occurred in Genoa and La Spezia. The reason is partly due to the wave of bad weather that hit the hinterland during the night between Saturday and Sunday. In the areas not affected by the bad weather, in fact, the drop was between 5 and 8%: in Savona city, 35.5% of voters voted (-7.7% compared to four years ago), in Albenga 33.7% (-5.%), in Varazze 34% (-7.45%), in Alassio 28.26% (8.5%). Collapse was more marked in the flooded municipalities: in Cairo Montenotte, the one worst hit by the fury of the bad weather (even the hospital was flooded), voters, at 11.00 p.m. last night, were only 21.37% of those eligible to vote, compared to 41.16% four years ago. In Carcare 29.54% voted (-14.3%), in Altare 20.03% (-17.7%). In Bormida, turnout stood at 14.89%, in Dego at 14.14% (practically half that of 2020), in Giusvalla at 11.77%. Apart from the very low figure in the flooded municipalities, there were no problems at the polls. The only episode was in Savona, where at the Boselli Alberti school polling station the police drove away a pollster from the Piepoli institute, working for Rai. "They were all very polite," the pollster explained to the Secolo XIX, "I was asked not to be stationed on the voting floor because, by interviewing voters and telling them to vote again as they did at the polling stations, I could have influenced those who had not yet expressed themselves. So I moved to the ground floor, to the lobby'.