2013 Basilicata Regional Election

The 2013 Basilicata regional election took place on 17–18 November 2013. The election was for all 21 seats, reduced from 30, of the Regional Council of Basilicata and the president of Basilicata, who automatically became a member of the council alongside the second-placed candidate. It was the last election of the 2013 Italian regional elections.

The snap election was called upon the resignation of the incumbent president of Basilicata, Vito De Filippo of the Democratic Party, on 24 April 2013 and the subsequent dissolution of the Regional Council of Basilicata. Several regional ministers and councillors had been involved in an expenses scandal, and one minister and two councillors had been arrested.

As Basilicata is a traditional stronghold of the centre-left coalition, Marcello Pittella (a former Italian Socialist Party member and brother of Gianni Pittella, the then Vice President of the European Parliament) was elected by a landslide 59.6% of the votes. Its main opponent, Tito Di Maggio of Civic Choice (supported by the centre-right coalition, comprising The People of Freedom and the Union of the Centre), gained 19.4% of the votes. The Democratic Party was the most voted party with 24.8%, followed by Pittella's personal list with 16.0%.

Background

In the 2010 Basilicata regional election, the incumbent president Vito De Filippo won in a landslide election. On 24 April 2013, De Filippo resigned, resulting in a snap election. He had resigned after investigations into councilors and aldermen led to the house arrest of two centre-left coalition councilors (Vicenzo Viti of the Democratic Party and Rosa Mastrosimone of Italy of Values) and the People of Freedom group leader and 2010 candidate Nicola Pagliuca. They were later released. Additionally, the Regional Council of Basilicata had its seats reduced from 30 to 20. Basilicata is considered the political equivalent of the left-wing Emilia-Romagna region in Southern Italy.

The centre-left coalition chose its candidate through a primary election held on 22 September 2013. In an upset Marcello Pittella, the brother of Gianni Pittella, defeated the province of Potenza president and official candidate Piero Lacorazza of the Democratic Party, Nicola Benedetto of the Democratic Centre, and Miko Somma of the Lucan Community – No Oil Movement. The Five Star Movement also chose its candidate with primaries held on 4 October 2013. The winner was the lieutenant of the provincial Police of Potenza Giuseppe Di Bello, who was excluded the same day by Beppe Grillo for "formal irregularities in the presentation of documents"; thus, the presidential candidate became the runner-up Piernicola Pedicini.

To the left-wing of the centre-left coalition, the candidate was Maria Murante, regional secretary of Left Ecology Freedom; the list in support of Murante was Basilicata 2.0, which was made up of Left Ecology Freedom, Communist Refoundation Party, Civil Action, Let's Free Basilicata, and Live Tramutola. Earlier, an alliance between Left Ecology Freedom and the Five Star Movement had been discussed. Di Bello had created the alternative list Let's Free Basilicata, through which he sought an agreement with Left Ecology Freedom and with a list organized by Silvana Arbia, chancellor of the International Criminal Court and hypothesized as a presidential candidate. The latter's last-minute resignation led to the reduction of the coalition to two lists and the candidacy of Murante as president. For the centre-right coalition, the candidate was Salvatore Di Maggio, senator of Civic Choice. The coalition included the Union of the Centre, which in the previous legislature was instead part with a councillor of the centre-left coalition majority.

Political parties and candidates

Results

Voter turnout

References

{{elections in Basilicata
2013 elections in Italy
Elections in Basilicata