Centre-right governor candidate Paolo Truzzu was in the lead on 47% after the ballots from around 30% of the voting sections had been counted. Alessandra Todde, the candidate for the 'broad field' alliance between the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and the populist left-wing 5-Star Movement (M5S), had 44% and was some 5,000 votes behind.
Independent candidate Renato Soru was some way back in third place with around 8% for his Sardinian Coalition.