Roberto Giachetti voted Partito Democratico candidate on low turnout.

Roberto Giachetti won the Rome PD primaries to select the party's candidate to run for mayor in the June local elections.

Giachetti, the deputy speaker of the chamber of deputies, won with around 64 per cent of the turnout, compared to about 28 per cent for his closest challenger Roberto Morassut, the fellow Partito Democratico (PD) member and former Rome councillor for urban planning under Walter Veltroni.

Turnout in the primaries was low at about 50,000, almost half the number of votes that saw ex-mayor Ignazio Marino nominated as the centre-left candidate in 2013.

Giachetti is considered close to Italian premier Matteo Renzi who said he has the ideal profile to lead Rome away from recent controversies such the Mafia Capitale case and the expenses scandal that brought down Marino.

Celebrating the result in his election headquarters at the former custom house in the S.Lorenzo district, Giachetti promised a "free and fair" campaign.

See related article by Laura Clarke on June local elections.