«Beyond the merits of the legal and judicial question, which falls to the TAR, it is the institutional management of the entire affair that leaves many questions, and they are questions that concern the Schifani Government», declares the provincial secretary of the Democratic Party Armando Hyerace.
The sequence of acts emerges from journalistic reconstructions and from consultable public documents. On March 11, the group leader of Sud Gioca Nord all’Ars wrote to the regional Department of Local Autonomy; the note is registered on the 13th; the answer arrives on the 16th.
«The Department responds in three days, and this speed in itself would even be a merit. The problem is how he responds: with a formulation that, to put it in the Sicilian way, seems to be made with trisiri and nesciri. Enough to be used by those who asked for the opinion, not clear enough to close the issue. The response simply refers to the meaning already outlined in the note found.”
«But the real question is another: why express an opinion on such a delicate electoral matter without waiting for the opinion of the Legislative and Legal Office, which is the body called upon to provide legal support? Something in the sequence and timing of the acts doesn’t add up and needs to be explained.”
The opinion of the Legislative and Legal Office would arrive later, close to the deadline for the presentation of the lists.
«Too late to make a concrete impact. And in all of this it cannot be overlooked that the local government department was ad interim headed by the president of the Region. That department responded politically to Schifani: we ask to know if that orientation was agreed with the political leadership or if an office moved alone on a matter that concerns electoral rules”.
«It should also be remembered that the parliamentary group that asked for that opinion exists at the Ars thanks to a waiver granted in 2024 by the President of the Assembly. They are two distinct institutional decisions, both favorable to the same political entity.”
«Before even asking ourselves whether all this was an advantage for anyone, we must ask ourselves how it was possible to manage such a delicate matter in this way, which affects electoral rules and voting in the third largest metropolitan city in Sicily and in the two most populous centers of our province. There can be no ambiguous opinions, delays and gray areas regarding the rules of elections. President Schifani has the duty to explain what happened.”
The regional deputy of the Democratic Party Calogero Leanza also intervenes on the matter, announcing an initiative to the Ars: «I will present an urgent question to the regional government so that the entire affair can be reconstructed: what opinions were requested, by whom, on the basis of what assumptions and why they were provided in those times. On a matter that concerns voting rules, precise answers are needed, without leaving any gray areas.”