Voters in Rome elect first female mayor

Voters in Rome elected their first female mayor on Sunday, choosing a 37-year-old anti-establishment attorney who vowed to clean up local government amid corruption probes of city contracts.

With about 16% of ballots counted, Virginia Raggi of the 5-Star Movement led by an estimated 2-to-1 margin over her rival, Democrat Roberto Giachetti, who was backed in the city’s mayoral runoff by Italian Premier Matteo Renzi, The Telegraph reported.

Giachetti conceded defeat, the Associated Press reported, calling Raggi to wish her luck.

In the first round of voting two weeks ago, Raggi won 35% of the vote to Giachetti's 24%.

Dozens of people, including local politicians from the Democrats, right-wing parties and other political forces, have been implicated in corruption probes of city contracts, AP reported.

Raggi will take over a city deeply in debt — the BBC reported that at $15 billion, Rome's debt is twice as big as its annual budget. The city has been without a mayor since October, when Ignazio Marino resigned over the scandal. A bigger scandal over alleged Mafia influence in Rome's city hall has fueled the upstart 5-Star's rise.

It has been campaigning against corruption since its founding in 2009 by comedian Beppe Grillo and is looking to establish itself as the main opposition party in the 2018 general election, the BBC reported.

In other races, partial returns showed another female 5-Star candidate apparently heading to an upset victory over Turin’s incumbent mayor, a Democrat. Chiara Appendino was poised to upset incumbent Mayor Piero Fassino, The Telegraph reported. 

Giuseppe Sala, Renzi’s candidate in Milan, was clinging to a tight lead in exit polls with a predicted 51% of the vote.

In Naples, former prosecutor Luigi de Magistris, a centrist, was set to win a second term, the BBC reported.

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