Caesar baffled and inconsolable as "anti-establishment" candidate leads the mayoral race in Rome.

Caesar said “establishment politics is different than anti-establishment politics." He said when people have several choices to make, they are just interested in getting to their same old unimaginative ward heeler in a timely manner.

“If you make them think too much, they won’t vote the straight party ticket,” he said. “And people’s attitudes when it comes to pandering will have to change. With two-way pandering, they have to look for solutions in different directions.”

Rome likely to have elected its first female mayor, by Rosie Scammell (The Guardian)

Exit polls suggest that Virginia Raggi, a 37-year-old lawyer, has won the job for the anti-establishment Five Star Movement

An anti-establishment outsider is on track to be elected mayor of Rome, according to exit polls, and become the first woman to run the Italian capital.

Virginia Raggi, the Five Star Movement’s (M5S) candidate, won between 64% and 68% of the vote, according to polls published on Sunday night by the Ansa news agency. The 37-year-old lawyer was well ahead of her rival, the Democratic party’s Roberto Giachetti, who was forecast to win between 32 and 36% of votes.