Centre-right candidate Donato Toma was elected governor of Italy's southern Molise region after he won 43.46 percent of votes in Sunday's election, while the populist Five-Star Movement's candidate Andrea Greco came second with 38.50 percent, the region said on Monday.
In the first test of voter sentiment since last month's inconclusive national election, the centre-left Democratic Party's woes continued in the Molise vote after its candidate Carlo Veneziale came a poor third with 17.1 percent of ballots cast.
Italy has had a caretaker government since the 4 March election in which no party or bloc won a parliamentary majority. Three rounds of talks among party leaders this month on forming a government have failed amid ongoing political deadlock.
Molise was formerly governed by the Democratic Party. Its population of has fallen by a fourth since the 1950s to just over 300,000 people and youth joblessness is running at almost 50 percent. Regional income per head is almost a third below the national average.
