The 1995 Italian local elections were held on 23 April (with runoffs on 7 May) and 19 November (with runoffs on 3 December). For many cities, they were the first elections conducted after the introduction of the direct election of mayors and presidents of provinces in 1993.
In Aosta Valley the elections were held on 28 May (with runoffs on 11 June). In Trentino-Alto Adige the elections were held on 4 June (with runoffs on 18 June).
The elections marked the triumph of the centre-left alliance formed by the Democratic Party of the Leftà(PDS) of Massimo DâÂÂAlema and the Italian People's Party (PPI) of Mino Martinazzoli, while the centre-right alliance of Silvio Berlusconi â whose government fell in December 1994 â was heavily defeated.
The first round of April elections were held on the same day of the regional elections.
The semipresidential voting system was the one used for all mayoral elections in Italy of cities with a population higher than 15,000. Under this system voters express a direct choice for the mayor or an indirect choice voting for the party of the candidate's coalition. If no candidate receives at least 50% of votes, the top two candidates go to a run-off after two weeks. The winning candidate obtains a majority bonus equal to 60% of seats in the City Council. During the first round, if no candidate gets more than 50% of votes but a coalition of lists gets the majority of 50% of votes or if the mayor is elected in the first round but its coalition gets less than 40% of the valid votes, the majority bonus cannot be assigned to the coalition of the winning mayor candidate.
The election of the City Council is based on a direct choice for the candidate with a maximum of one preferential vote: the candidate with the majority of the preferences is elected. The number of the seats for each party is determined proportionally, using D'Hondt seat allocation. Only coalitions with more than 3% of votes are eligible to get any seats.