In an upset, Enzo Ghigo of Forza Italia (FI) was elected president of the region, defeating Giuseppe Pichetto, an independent politician running for the country's centre-left coalition, and Domenico Comino of the Lega Nord (Northern League) regional branch Lega Nord Piemont (Northern League Piedmont).

FI, which was founded the year before by Silvio Berlusconi, formed the People's Pole joint list and became the largest party in the region with 26.7% of the vote, while the Democrats of the Left came second with 21.7%.

Regional elections in Piedmont were ruled by the Tatarella law, which was approved in 1995 and provided for a mixed electoral system.

Four fifths of the regional councilors were elected in provincial constituencies by proportional representation, using the largest remainder method with a Droop quota and open lists, while the residual votes and the unassigned seats were grouped into a single regional constituency, where the whole ratios and the highest remainders were divided with the Hare quota among the provincial party lists; one fifth of the council seats instead was reserved for regional lists and assigned with a majoritarian representation system, in which the leader of the regional list that scored the highest number of votes was elected to the presidency of the region, while the other candidates were elected regional councilors.

A threshold of 3% had been established for the provincial lists, which could still have entered the regional council if the regional list to which they were connected had scored at least 5% of valid votes.