By Crispian Balmer
ROME (Reuters) -Conservative parties looked set to win a string of local elections across Italy, early results showed on Monday, but a referendum on justice reform championed by rightist leader Matteo Salvini fell flat.
The mayoral races, held on Sunday, are the final major electoral test for Italy's plethora of parties before next year's parliamentary election.
The centre-right bloc made up of Salvini's League, the Brothers of Italy and Forza Italia, led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, appeared poised for victory in the majority of 26 provincial and regional capitals up for grabs.
It already ran many of these cities, including Genoa and L'Aquila, but snatched the Sicilian capital Palermo from an alliance of centre-left groups, including the Democratic Party.
In a fillip for the centre-left, its candidate, former soccer international Damiano Tommasi, led the field in the northern city of Verona, a traditional conservative bastion, after the centre-right failed to rally behind a joint candidate.
However, Tommasi failed to secure an outright majority, meaning he will face a run-off vote on June 26, giving his opponents another chance to unite behind a single contender.
Although parties tend to run in multi-pronged alliances at local elections in Italy, voters signal individual preferences, revealing the relative strength of the various groups involved.
Much attention will be focused on whether the far-right Brothers of Italy, headed by Giorgia Meloni, manages to maintain the commanding seven-point lead over Salvini's League that she has built up in recent opinion polls.
Should the centre-right win next year's parliamentary vote, the predominant party will decide who should be prime minister. The League was the clear leader of the bloc until last year when a series of missteps by Salvini saw its support erode sharply.
In a fresh setback, Italians snubbed the referendum on changes to the justice system, which Salvini had personally sponsored. Just 20.9% of voters cast a ballot, well below the 50% threshold needed for the result to be valid.
It was the lowest ever turnout for a referendum, with analysts saying the complex issues had failed to resonate.
"Salvini has clearly lost his touch," said Lorenzo Pregliasco, director of You Trend pollsters.