For the first time the President of the Region was directly elected by the people, although the election was not yet binding and the President-elect could have been replaced during the term. This is precisely what happened in 1998, when the centre-right decided to replace Nisticò with Battista Caligiuri, and again in 1999, when a centre-left majority supported by dissidents of the centre-right, who had formed the Democratic Union for the Republic, ousted Caligiuri and replaced him with Luigi Meduri of the Italian People's Party.
