1st projections: Rome mayor may fall short of making runoff

By FRANCES D’EMILIO
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Ballot counting has begin in Italy after two days of voting for mayors in many cities. First projections on Italian state TV indicated Monday that populist Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi fell as much as 10 percentage points behind the top two candidates. If that holds, the 5-Star Movement figure would fail to make a runoff election in two weeks between the two top vote-getters. But other media’s projections indicated she might clinch a runoff slot. First projections indicated that Milan’s center-left Mayor Giuseppe Sala could win enough votes to avoid a runoff. Partial results of ballot counting were expected in a few hours.