Polling stations reopened this morning at 7am for the counting of ballot papers in Sardinia where yesterday the vote was taken to elect the governor and renew the regional council.
The members of the 1844 sections will have 12 hours, until 7pm, to complete all the activities with the results.
If there are sections that have not completed their work, the packages with all the cards and registers will be closed inside sealed envelopes and will be transferred to the courts of the territorial districts which will complete the operations and verify all the results.
Declining turnout in Sardinia, surprise after the increase (by Roberta Celot)
Election Sunday in Sardinia gave a first response, waiting for the most awaited one when today, with the start of the counting at 7, the name of the new president of the Region will be known.
First verdict on turnout, the worst unknown, together with the disjointed vote, of this call to the polls, which sees the Sardinians confirming and indeed worsening their disaffection with the polls: the final figure in fact records a -1.5%.
The almost obsessive reminder of the four gubernatorial candidates in the last hours of the campaign to the responsibility and civil commitment of citizens in actively participating in the political life of the country did not make inroads.
The latest survey at the closing of the polls does not confirm the trend recorded since the morning and continued at 7pm (+0.8%), instead delivering a negative result: at 10pm 52.4% of those entitled to vote against 53, 09% in 2019. The voters were mainly driven by Nuoro - the birthplace of the candidate from the Largo Campo Alessandra Todde - and the province with a record of 56%.
Now the wait for tomorrow's results begins.
The name of the governor should be known, at least as a projection, by mid-afternoon, but caution is a must.
This year, unlike 5 years ago, there will be no exit polls which generally guide the final outcome.
It didn't go like this in 2019: released on Sunday at 10pm with the polls closed, they firmly indicated a head-to-head between Solinas and Zedda, but the following day the picture turned out to be completely opposite.
The flop of the pollsters became a national case with a request for official explanations from the Rai top management, who commissioned the exits, from the polling institutes.
The waiting times to know the name of the new president in Sardinia will then be affected by the progress of the count.
Five years ago it was a semi-disaster: it took almost a month for the official proclamation of the sixty elected regional councilors and the governor.
An infinite wait due to the impossibility in many polling stations to complete the counting within the time required by law, with the consequence that the ballot boxes were sealed again and crowded the respective district electoral offices for the counting of the ballots and the transmission of the minutes to the Court of Appeal of Cagliari.
The four who aspire to lead the island in the next legislature will have to keep their nerve during the long Monday which will ultimately make one of them rejoice.
The first to vote this morning in her seat in Austis, in the Nuoro area, was Lucia Chessa, the outsider candidate supported by the Sardigna R-esiste list who promises: "We will be there even after the outcome of these elections and we will be breathing down our necks on whoever will govern our island".
It was then the turn of the centre-right candidate Paolo Truzzu in Cagliari.
"Now the vote - he said - then clearly the Cagliari match against Napoli".
And then?
"Afterwards we wait, I usually wait at home alone for the outcome of the vote: I think I will do the same on this occasion."
For Renato Soru, candidate of the Sardinian Coalition, arriving at the Cagliari polling station, accompanied by his staff and his wife, was an opportunity to take stock: "It was a nice electoral campaign and today will be a nice day of democracy and participation".
His opponent in the centre-left, Alessandra Todde, who here in Sardinia is aiming for the first affirmation of the broad camp led by the Pd-M5s, voted in her city, Nuoro.
And from here she launched her final appeal: "Today the important thing is that people go to vote, make their vote count and decide for the present and future of Sardinia".
For all four of us, tomorrow will be the longest day.
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