Marco Martino, outgoing mayor of the municipal administration dissolved due to mafia infiltration, is once again mayor of Capistrano, a town in the Vibonese area. Martino (an expression of Forza Italia, but at the head of the civic list “Rinascita Capistranese”) prevailed with 67% of the valid votes (411) over his challenger Giuseppe Crispino (202 votes equal to 32% of the votes). The turnout at the polls was 46%. The Municipality of Capistrano had been governed in the last two years by a three-person commissioner after the dissolution of the elective bodies of the body (administration led by Marco Martino himself) for mafia infiltration had been confirmed by the TAR and the Council of State who had rejected the appeal of Martino and other former administrators, considering the presence of “unique, concrete and relevant” elements of mafia infiltration in the elective bodies of the institution.
Marco Martino had in recent weeks been declared “unpresentable” – like the former deputy mayor Vito Pirruccio – also by the parliamentary anti-mafia commission which considered these two candidacies in open violation of the Code of ethical self-regulation of candidatures which all parties at a national level have signed. Furthermore, a request for Marco Martino’s ineligibility for candidacy is pending before the Court of Vibo Valentia pursuant to the anti-mafia law advanced by the Ministry of the Interior. However, the case follows the civil procedure with the slowness typical of Vibo civil justice. In the event of a definitive ruling of ineligibility for candidacy (first instance in Vibo, appeal in Catanzaro and then Supreme Court in Rome), the elected Marco Martino will be automatically declared forfeited and will have to serve two consecutive rounds of ineligibility for the municipal, provincial and regional elections. However, until the final ruling of ineligibility for candidacy is issued, he will remain at the helm of the Municipality of Capistrano as mayor, except for the sending of a new Commission for access to documents by the Prefecture of Vibo Valentia and the Ministry of the Interior.