Sicilian regional election, 2012

Sicilian regional election, 2012

October 28, 2012
All 90 seats to the Sicilian Regional Assembly 46 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	47.42%[1]
First party Second party   Leader Rosario Crocetta Nello Musumeci Party Democratic Party The Right Seats won 39 21 Popular vote 617,073 521,022 Percentage 30.47% 25.73%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Giancarlo Cancelleri Gianfranco Micciché Party Five Star Movement Great South Seats won 15 15 Popular vote 368,006 312,112 Percentage 18.17% 15.41%
President of Sicily before election Raffaele Lombardo Movement for the Autonomies Elected President of Sicily Rosario Crocetta Democratic Party

The Sicilian regional election of 2012 for the renewal of the Sicilian Regional Assembly and the election of the President of Sicily was held on 28 October 2012. It was a snap election, following the resignation of President Raffaele Lombardo for judicial and financial reasons.

The election was competed by ten candidates from newly reshuffled political alliances, and is expected to be an unusually close race. The winner of the election was Rosario Crocetta,^[2][3] candidate for a centre-left alliance of Democratic Party and the Union of the Centre.^[3]

Candidates

• Nello Musumeci: a long-time Member of European Parliament and former 2006 election candidate, heads a "regular" centre-right coalition formed by The People of Freedom (PdL) and The Right (LD), the latter being the party of Musumeci;
• Gianfranco Micciché: a former minister for Development, deputy minister for Economy and - most recently - state undersecretary in several cabinets of Silvio Berlusconi, will lead a Sicilianist (pro-autonomy) coalition formed by Raffaele Lombardo's Movement for the Autonomies (MpA), renamed Party of the Sicilians for the occasion, Micciché's own party Great South (GS), and the regional section of Future and Freedom (FLI).
• Rosario Crocetta: Member of European Parliament and former Mayor of Gela, will be the candidate of a moderate centre-left coalition formed by Crocetta's Democratic Party (PD) and the Union of the Centre (UdC);
• Giovanna Marano: a Sicilian trade union leader, leads a left-wing coalition made of Left Ecology Freedom (SEL), Italy of Values (IdV), the Federation of the Left (FdS) and the Federation of the Greens (FdV). She was put in place of original candidate Claudio Fava after the latter failed to move his residence to Sicily in time;
• Giancarlo Cancellieri: leading member candidate for the Sicilian wing of Beppe Grillo's Five Star Movement (M5S). His candidacy was extensively supported by Grillo himself, who reached the island swimming across the Strait of Messina and then campaigned consecutively through the island for the last two weeks of electoral campaign;
• Mariano Ferro: a leading member and figurehead of the 2012 Sicilian protests, runs as a candidate for the Pitchforks Movement;
• Cateno De Luca: a former Movement for the Autonomies member and outgoing Sicilian MP, runs as a candidate for his own movement Sicilian Revolution.
• Giacomo Di Leo: candidate for Workers' Communist Party;
• Gaspare Sturzo: a descendant of Italian People's Party founder Luigi Sturzo, runs as an independent candidate for "Sturzo Presidente" (Sturzo President);
• Lucia Pinsone: independent candidate for "Voi Volontari per l'Italia" (You Volunteers for Italy);

Electoral system

The Sicilian Parliament is elected with a mixed system: 80 MPs are chosen with a form of proportional representation using a largest remainder method with open lists and a 5% threshold, while 10 MPs are elected with a block voting system with closed lists.

Results

28 October 2012 Sicilian regional election results

Candidates	Regional lists			Provincial lists					Total
	votes	%	seats	Parties		votes	%	seats	group
Rosario Crocetta	617,073	30.47	9		Democratic Party	257,274	13.42	14	39
					Union of the Centre	207,827	10.84	11
					The Megaphone – Crocetta List (incl. ApI and PSI)[4][5]	118,346	6.17	5
					Democratic Union for Consumers	100	0.00	0
Nello Musumeci	521,022	25.73	1		The People of Freedom	247,351	12.91	12	21
					Popular Construction	112,169	5.85	4
					Musumeci List (incl. The Right)[6]	107,397	5.60	4
					Alliance of the Centre (incl. PSDI and MRN)	5,017	0.26	0
Giancarlo Cancelleri	368,006	18.17	–		Five Star Movement	285,202	14.88	15	15
Gianfranco Micciché	312,112	15.41	–		Party of the Sicilians	182,737	9.53	10	15
					Great South	115,444	6.02	5
					Future and Freedom	83,891	4.37	0
					Thought Action Party	959	0.05	0
Giovanna Marano	122,633	6.10	–		Italy of Values	67,738	3.53	0	–
					Left Ecology Freedom–FdS–Greens	58,753	3.06	0
Mariano Ferro	31,390	1.55	–		The People of Pitchforks (incl. FN)	23,965	1.20	0	–
Cateno De Luca	25,058	1.23	–		Sicilian Revolution	23,966	1.20	0	–
Gaspare Sturzo	19,248	0.95	–		Sturzo President	14,929	0.77	0	–
Giacomo Di Leo	4,495	0.22	–		Workers' Communist Party	2,031	0.10	0	–
Lucia Pinsone	3,659	0.18	–		Voluntaries for Italy	2,278	0.11	0	–
Total candidates	2,024,696	100.00	10	Total parties		1,915,830	100.00	80	90

Source: Sicilian Region

Aftermath

Following the result of the election, Crocetta was elected as president of Sicily, which turned out to be surprising in what was considered the strongest conservative stronghold of Italy. As he did not have a full majority in the Sicilian assembly, Crocetta decided to form a minority government with the support of the Five Star Movement in a number of shared legislative acts.

Notes