2008 Italian Senate election, North and Central American division

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The 2008 Italian general election was the second in which Italian and dual citizens living outside the country could vote by postal ballot in international electoral districts. Twelve members of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and six members of the Italian Senate were elected in this way.

Contents

Italian and dual citizens in North America and Central America (including the Caribbean) elected one member of the Italian Senate. The winning candidate was Basilio Giordano from Silvio Berlusconi's party, known as the People of Freedom.

The process

All electors could vote for a political list and also cast a first preference vote for a specific candidate. The party with the highest number of list votes won the Senate seat, and the winning party's candidate with the highest number of first preference votes was declared elected.

The parties

Four electoral lists contested the North and Central American Senate division. The same lists also fielded candidates for the Chamber of Deputies and North and Central America.

The governing centre-left Democratic Party ran a united slate, as did Berlusconi's right-wing opposition list. The moderately conservative Union of the Centre (UDC), formerly aligned with Berlusconi, ran a separate list, as did a small coalition of right-wing and far-right parties called The Right–Tricolour Flame.

All of the party lists fielded two candidates.

The candidates

People of Freedom

Democratic Party

Union of the Centre

The Right–Tricolour Flame

The results

Berlusconi's electoral coalition won a narrow plurality, defeating the Democratic Party by only 793 votes. Basilio Giordano received the most votes of the candidates on Berlusconi's list and was declared elected.

Democratic Party incumbent Renato Turano actually received more first preference votes than Giordano, but, as his party list was defeated, he was not returned to office. [10]

PartyVotes%Senators
   People of Freedom 38,89644.961
   Democratic Party 38,10344.04
   Union of the Centre 7,3308.47
   The Right–Tricolour Flame 2,1932.53
Total valid votes86,522100.00
People of Freedom candidate preference votes
Basilio Giordano (elected)13,083
Augusto Sorriso8,699
Democratic Party candidate preference votes
Renato Turano (incumbent)15,223
Marina Piazzi7,431
Union of the Centre candidate preference votes
Massimo Seracini2,194
Vittorio Coco 1,791
The Right–Tricolour Flame candidate preference votes
Giuseppe Cirnigliaro544
Franco Misuraca461

Source: ARCHIVIO STORICO DELLE ELEZIONI - Consultazione dati: Senato 13/04/2008, Area ESTERO, Ripartizione AMERICA SETTENTRIONALE E CENTRALE, Ministerio dell'Interno, Government of Italy, accessed 27 July 2011. Voters were not required to give a preference vote for any candidate.

Detailed results by country

More than 90 per cent of the total votes were cast in the United States of America and Canada. The Democratic Party won narrow victory in the United States, Mexico, and Nicaragua, but was defeated everywhere else. The People of Freedom won a narrow victory in Canada; this was a significant shift from the 2006 election, when the centre-left had won by a credible margin.

Antigua and Barbuda

PartyVotes%
   Democratic Party 00.00
   People of Freedom 00.00
   Union of the Centre 00.00
   The Right–Tricolour Flame 00.00
Total valid votes00.00

Bahamas

PartyVotes%
   Democratic Party 00.00
   People of Freedom 00.00
   Union of the Centre 00.00
   The Right–Tricolour Flame 00.00
Total valid votes00.00

Barbados

PartyVotes%
   Democratic Party 00.00
   People of Freedom 00.00
   Union of the Centre 00.00
   The Right–Tricolour Flame 00.00
Total valid votes00.00

Belize

PartyVotes%
   Democratic Party 00.00
   People of Freedom 00.00
   Union of the Centre 00.00
   The Right–Tricolour Flame 00.00
Total valid votes00.00

Canada

PartyVotes%
   People of Freedom 16,18445.15
   Democratic Party 15,79444.06
   Union of the Centre 3,2749.13
   The Right–Tricolour Flame 5951.66
Total valid votes35,84742.82

Costa Rica

PartyVotes%
   People of Freedom 38555.56
   Democratic Party 24835.79
   Union of the Centre 344.91
   The Right–Tricolour Flame 263.75
Total valid votes6930.83

Dominican Republic

PartyVotes%
   People of Freedom 72358.88
   Democratic Party 29423.94
   The Right–Tricolour Flame 14011.40
   Union of the Centre 715.78
Total valid votes1,2281.47

El Salvador

PartyVotes%
   People of Freedom 24465.42
   Democratic Party 9926.54
   Union of the Centre 225.90
   The Right–Tricolour Flame 82.14
Total valid votes3730.45

Grenada

PartyVotes%
   Democratic Party 00.00
   People of Freedom 00.00
   Union of the Centre 00.00
   The Right–Tricolour Flame 00.00
Total valid votes00.00

Guatemala

PartyVotes%
   People of Freedom 58464.82
   Democratic Party 18620.64
   The Right–Tricolour Flame 738.10
   Union of the Centre 586.44
Total valid votes9011.08

Haiti

PartyVotes%
   Democratic Party 00.00
   People of Freedom 00.00
   Union of the Centre 00.00
   The Right–Tricolour Flame 00.00
Total valid votes00.00

Honduras

PartyVotes%
   People of Freedom 4445.36
   Democratic Party 3738.14
   Union of the Centre 1414.43
   The Right–Tricolour Flame 22.06
Total valid votes970.12

Mexico

PartyVotes%
   Democratic Party 66747.41
   People of Freedom 59942.57
   Union of the Centre 1077.60
   The Right–Tricolour Flame 342.42
Total valid votes1,4071.68

Nicaragua

PartyVotes%
   Democratic Party 6447.76
   People of Freedom 5037.31
   Union of the Centre 107.46
   The Right–Tricolour Flame 107.46
Total valid votes1340.16

Panama

PartyVotes%
   People of Freedom 12950.99
   Democratic Party 9135.97
   Union of the Centre 259.88
   The Right–Tricolour Flame 83.16
Total valid votes2530.30

United States of America

PartyVotes%
   Democratic Party 19,25445.00
   People of Freedom 18,83244.01
   Union of the Centre 3,4728.11
   The Right–Tricolour Flame 1,2302.87
Total valid votes42,78851.11

Note: The country-by-country totals provided by the Italian Ministry of the Interior do not entirely correspond with the final totals provided by the same source. Adding up the country-by-country totals yields the following results: People of Freedom 37,774; Democratic Party 36,734; Union of the Centre 7,087; The Right–Tricolour Flame 2,126. These results are the same as the provisional totals provided by La Repubblica with 120 out of 123 polling districts reporting. It is therefore assumed that the country-by-country totals represent the provisional and not the final totals.

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