Italians Vote for Municipal Mayors Ahead of Parliamentary Election

Some 9 million Italian voters are heading to the polls on Sunday to elect municipal mayors ahead of parliamentary elections which are due in spring 2018 at the latest, the country's Interior Ministry said.

ROME (Sputnik) — According to the ministry, polling stations across 1,021 municipalities, 153 of which have more than 15,000 inhabitants, are open from 7:00 a.m. local time (05:00 GMT) until 11:00 p.m. The voting will also take place in Italy's four regional capitals — Genoa, Palermo, Catanzaro and L’Aquila.

The second round of the election will be held on June 25 in municipalities where no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the votes.

On Monday, the Italian parliament started discussing the electoral system overhaul bill after an agreement struck by the main political parties. The bill is based on proportional representation with an entry bar set at 5 percent. Both ruling and opposition parties expressed hope for the country’s electoral law being approved in early July.

Italy was due to hold elections in 2018, however, on December 6, 2016, Italy's then Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said that the country could hold snap parliamentary elections in February 2017, following the resignation of the country's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in the wake of the government-proposed constitutional referendum. Renzi's resignation took effect on December 12, 2016.