Four quadrants. One for each presidential candidate. This is how the green card for the 2024 Regionals looks like, where two women and the same number of men are competing for the leadership of Sardinia until 2029. This year we go to the polls only tomorrow, February 25th.
Mandatory rules
The polls open at 6.30am and close at 10pm. You have to wait until Monday to vote. The electoral silence began at midnight today, the aim of which is to give citizens a time for reflection.
The order on the card
Alessandra Todde's name, with the ten allies supporting her, is at the top left. Below is Paolo Truzzu's centre-right, with nine parties. On the right, in the upper part of the card, Renato Soru's Sardinian Coalition, made up of five electoral signs. Below, Sardigna R-existe by Lucia Chessa, which is a unique list. This order is the casual result of the draw made last January 30th by the Central Electoral Office, in the Court of Appeal in Cagliari.
The constituencies
The voting card is the same throughout Sardinia. However, in each of the eight constituencies into which the island is divided - Cagliari, Medio Campidano, Sulcis, Ogliastra, Sassari, Gallura, Nuoro and Oristano - the lists of aspiring councilors change. In fact: in Cagliari, the largest constituency in Sardinia, voters can choose from twenty names, ten of which are women and the same number of men. In the Middle Campidano and Sulcis there are four candidates, always equally distributed between the two sexes; two in Ogliastra; twelve in the Sassari area. In Gallura, in the Nuoro area and in the Oristano area there are six lists. Sardigna R-esiste did not present candidates for councilors in the Sassari and Ogliastra areas.
How the vote is cast
The names of the aspiring governors are already written on the ballot. So to give them preference simply place a cross on the relevant symbol. Different situation for councilor candidates: the vote is expressed by writing the surname (the name is not obligatory) next to the logo of the reference list, which must be crossed out with an double gender preference, a woman and a man can vote together. But only within the same list, otherwise the card is null.
The split vote
According to the Sardinian electoral law, preferences are "disconnected": the voter can choose as president a candidate who belongs to a different coalition than that of the councilor to whom the preference is given. The split vote is exercised with the double cross: one on the symbol of the gubernatorial candidate, the other on the list of the chosen councilor (whose surname, we repeat, must be written). If, however, one remains in the same camp, when preference is given to an honorable aspirant, the vote automatically also goes to the presidential candidate. This is why in many electoral forms, only the X appears on the party symbol with the name of the councilor in the running.
Free choice
Nominal preference, however, is not an obligation. A voter can decide to go to the polls to vote only for the gubernatorial candidate or can give their vote to a party without necessarily choosing a specific councilor. It should be noted that, even without indicating a surname, preference automatically goes to the presidential candidate linked to that list.
The position of the parties
As with aspiring governors, the order of parties on the ballot was also decided by the Court of Appeals with a drawing. For the Campo largo, this is the sequence of symbols: United for Todde, Fortza Paris, Orizzonte Comune, Pd, Progressisti, M5s, Sinistra futuro, Demos, Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra, Psi-Sardi in Europa. For the centre-right this is the order: FdI, Riformatori, Udc, Forza Italia, Alleanza Sardegna-Pli, Psd'Az, Dc with Rotondi, Sardinia at the center 20/20, Lega. In the Sardinian Coalition the extraction produced this result: Progetto Sardegna, +Europa-Azione-UPC, Rifondazione Comunista, Liberu and Vota Sardigna. Sardegna R-existe is, as mentioned, a unique list.
Alessandra Carta
