Thousands of people lined up in via Petroselli, many exhausted voters who decide to give up the vote, chaos in the polling stations due to the lack of presidents and tellers. Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow we vote to elect the new mayor of Rome, renew the Capitoline assembly and municipalities and, in the Primavalle college, to choose a new deputy in the place of Emanuela Del Re (M5S), chosen as EU special representative for the Sahel.

And it is controversy between the center-left and the M5S over electoral silence. The Democratic Party points out a video posted on social media by Virginia Raggi in which “he invites you to vote with his photo and his motto that highlights the surname in the hashtag – attacks the group leader Giulio Pelonzi – violating silence”.

According to the deputy dem Patrizia Prestipino, “one would always expect absolute correctness from a representative of the institutions”. From the staff of the mayor they reply by highlighting the sponsored posts by Roberto Gualtieri, who publishes the photos of the electoral campaign closings. In any case, at the moment posting on social networks is not considered silence, because there is no specific legislation.

DISCOMFORT
The organization’s departure was false, or at least very difficult. Starting with the distribution of the electoral cards: in the last two days the queues at the offices in via Petroselli have extended to the Lungotevere, even with moments of tension, while the traffic police try to put the lines in order. And the few employees present, often disconsolate, found themselves facing the nervousness of those who lost hours simply in an attempt (sometimes in vain) to obtain the necessary card to be able to exercise the right to vote. A paradox, in a historical period characterized by ever lower turnout at the polls.

“I went to my Town Hall twice, to no avail, to get the new electoral card, since I changed residence a few months ago – Silvia – In the end they showed me a provision where it was said that citizens who changed residence in recent years had to necessarily contact the offices in via Petroselli ». At the origin of the inconvenience, according to what was reported by a municipal employee, there would be a change in the computer system, carried out last March, which would have caused the misalignment of various personal data. And so there are people who have moved to Rome from other municipalities who are not yet resident in the capital, as well as fresh adults not yet included in the electoral lists. “Furthermore, between lacking staff and smart working, there are very few operators available at the counters”, they say in the corridors. Long queues even at the electoral offices where the presidents of polling stations convened in the organ of the absent arrived.

THE SECTIONS
After the difficulties in finding presidents available for all 2,603 ​​electoral sections of the capital, the opening in various locations was postponed for a few hours due to the lack of the minimum number of members necessary for the preliminary voting operations. The Capitol has therefore begun to call on duty employees alerted in case of emergency, from local police officers to teachers: some sections could open late this morning. Voting takes place today from 7 to 23 and tomorrow from 7 to 15. Each citizen at the polling station will receive a blue ballot, for the Capitol, and a gray one, for the Town Hall. You vote by crossing out only the name of the candidate for auditor, a list linked to the candidate, or both the name of the candidate and a list associated with him or linked to another candidate for mayor (separate vote). You can then write the surname of the candidate for the municipal council next to the symbol of the reference list: it is possible to express the dual gender candidacy by voting for two candidates of different sex. Same mechanism for the Municipalities.