The procedure for the election of the new secretary of the Italian center-left Democratic Party was completed tonight at 20:00 local time, with the participation of members and friends who wanted to take part in today’s contest.

According to the “Democrats” approximately one million three hundred thousand citizens were “present”. The count so far shows that the MP Ellie Sline (as her close associates made known) is ahead in fourteen regions of the country, out of a total of twenty.

More specifically, the committee supporting Slaine’s candidacy announced that the Italian, thirty-seven-year-old politician has so far secured approximately 60% of the preferences in Naples, Rome, Milan, Turin and the wider Venice area.

The other candidate and current regional governor of Emilia Romagna, Stefano Bonacini, through the mayor of Florence Dario Nardella – who is one of his main supporters – commented that “it will be a long night, but it is clear that this is not a simple mission”.

It is recalled that the Democratic Party is going through a difficult phase, after the defeat of the center-left in the parliamentary elections of last September and the decision of its secretary and former prime minister, Enrico Letta, to resign.

Stefano Bonacini, according to analysts, mainly expresses the centrist, reformist space, while Ellie Sline’s positions are considered closer to a more left-wing, radical approach to the country’s social and political reality.