2005 Ligurian regional election explained

The Ligurian regional election of 2005 took place on 3–4 April 2005.

Claudio Burlando (Democrats of the Left) defeated incumbent Sandro Biasotti (an independent close to Forza Italia).

Electoral system

Regional elections in Liguria were ruled by the "Tatarella law" (approved in 1995), which provided for a mixed electoral system: four fifths of the regional councilors were elected in provincial constituencies by proportional representation, using the largest remainder method with a droop quota and open lists, while the residual votes and the unassigned seats were grouped into a "single regional constituency", where the whole ratios and the highest remainders were divided with the Hare method among the provincial party lists; one fifth of the council seats instead was reserved for regional lists and assigned with a majoritarian system: the leader of the regional list that scored the highest number of votes was elected to the presidency of the Region while the other candidates were elected regional councilors.

A threshold of 3% had been established for the provincial lists, which, however, could still have entered the regional council if the regional list to which they were connected had scored at least 5% of valid votes.

The panachage was also allowed: the voter can indicate a candidate for the presidency but prefer a provincial list connected to another candidate.

Parties and candidates

Political party or alliance	Constituent lists	Previous result		Candidate
Votes (%)	Seats
	House of Freedoms			20.2	8	Sandro Biasotti
				10.2	3
				4.4	1
			Northern League Liguria	4.3	1
			New Liguria	2.8	1
			Biasotti List
			Others
	The Union			35.3	12	Claudio Burlando
				6.5	2
				2.1	1
			Party of Italian Communists	1.9	–
			Pensioners' Party	0.7	–
			People of Liguria
			Italy of Values
			Union of Democrats for Europe
			Others
	Social Alternative (AS–FT–FSN–FN)					Angelo Riccobaldi

Results

Candidates		Votes	%	Seats	Parties		Votes	%	Seat
	Claudio Burlando	491,545	52.64	8
		The Olive Tree	279,727	34.35	12
		Communist Refoundation Party	53,626	6.59	2
		People of Liguria	35,831	4.40	1
		Party of Italian Communists	21,877	2.69	1
		Federation of the Greens	16,089	1.98	1
		Italy of Values	10,611	1.30	1
		Union of Democrats for Europe	7,707	0.95	–
		Pensioners' Party	6,926	0.85	–
		Consumers	1,774	0.22	–
		Pact of Liberal Democrats	449	0.06	–
Total		434,617	53.37	18
	Sandro Biasotti	434,934	46.58	1
		Forza Italia	160,305	19.69	6
		Biasotti List	71,067	8.73	3
		National Alliance	58,221	7.15	2
			38,060	4.67	1
		Union of Christian and Centre Democrats	26,639	3.27	1
		New Liguria	5,857	0.72	–
		Socialists and Liberals	5,745	0.71	–
		Consumers' List	4,495	0.55	–
		Pensioners and Disabled – Animalists and Environmentalists	3,888	0.48	–
Total		374,277	45.96	13
	Angelo Riccobaldi	7,313	0.78	–		Social Alternative	5,441	0.67	–
Total candidates		933,792	100.00	9	Total parties		814,335	100.00	31
Source: Ministry of the Interior – Historical Archive of Elections