2010 Tuscan regional election


The Tuscan regional election of 2010 took place on 28–29 March 2010.
After two consecutive terms, Claudio Martini of the Democratic Party chose not run for a third term. His successor Enrico Rossi defeated by a landslide his centre-right opponent Monica Faenzi. The Democrats were by far the largest party, albeit losing ground from previous elections.
Minor candidates who were running were Francesco Bosi for the Union of the Centre, Alfonso De Virgilis for the Italian Radicals and Ilario Palmisani for New Force.

Electoral law

Tuscany uses its own legislation of 2004 to elect its Council. The councillors are elected in provincial constituencies by proportional representation using the largest remainder method with a Droop quota and close lists.
In this system parties are grouped in alliances, and the alliance which receives a plurality of votes elects all its candidates, its leader becoming the President of Tuscany.

Council apportionment

According to the official 2001 Italian census, the 33 Council seats which must be covered by proportional representation are so distributed between Tuscan provinces; the highest number of candidates in each list by province is this:
AR FI GR LI LU MS PI PT PO SI
61746737544

The allocation is fixed. Remaining seats and votes after nominal distribution, are all grouped at regional level and divided by party lists. The consequent division of these seats at provincial level usually change the original apportionment.

Results

2010 election led to the return to the guide of the Region, democratic Enrico Rossi, supported by the center-left coalition.
If the mechanisms of electoral law generated a Regional Council very similar to the incumbent one speaking about coalitions, the most relevant change was the new three seats conquered by Lega Nord Toscana, which obtained its best performance ever.
The Democratic Party was confirmed as the largest party in the region with 42% of the vote, despite a decline of six points, while The People of Freedom took the 27%. This race is the only one in which the center-left coalition improved its performance than the 2005 election.