Roundup: Mayoral runoffs underway in Italy's major cities

A local runoff election was underway in Italy on Sunday, as citizens were to choose the next mayors in 126 municipalities across the country.

Polls opened at 7 a.m., and would close at 11 p.m. local time, and some 8.6 million Italians were eligible to cast their ballot.

The turnout was around 15 percent at midday, according to the Interior Ministry.

This second round of voting was being held in the municipalities where none of the candidates has been able to exceed 50 percent of the vote in the first round held on June 5.

The major cities in the country were all involved in the runoffs: namely the capital Rome, Milan, Turin, and Bologna in the north, and Naples in the south.

All of these six large cities, but Naples, have been run by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's center-left Democratic Party (PD) in latest years.

Considering the results of the first round, the PD candidates running for mayor have already lost in Naples, and were facing a tough competition in at least two others: Rome and Milan.

Indeed, all eyes were on these two crucial cities on Sunday, since a setback there would be a signal of weakness for the ruling PD party, and might thus reverberate at national level.

In the Italian capital, candidate of anti-establishment, Eurosceptic Five Star Movement (M5S) Virginia Raggi was comfortably leading the race against PD rival Roberto Giachetti.

Raggi took 35.26 percent in the first round, and Giachetti took 24.91 percent.

The ten-percentage-point gap between the two runners was seen as very difficult to fill for the PD contender, who had been openly backed by Renzi in the campaign.

The center-left party has been ruling over the capital city for the last 22 years, but during a four-year-long center-right administration, was seemingly paying the price of a wide popular discontent.

Roman citizens showed their frustration for a recent mafia-related scandal involving local officials, and for lasting inefficiencies in public services, especially transport, rubbish, and housing.

In case of a M5S victory, Rome would have its first female mayor ever, and the loss would represent a serious blow for the PD and, possibly, for Renzi's cabinet.

Another key runoff was being held in Milan, Italy's economic and financial capital, where the mayoral race was even tighter, and the result more uncertain, than in Rome.

The two major contenders here were very close to each other. PD candidate Giuseppe Sala, chief of 2015 Milan Expo, took 41.69 percent in the first round, and center-right rival Stefano Parisi took 40.77 percent.

PD candidates were leading in the runoffs in Turin and Bologna. Endit