Italian Senate approves bill on new electoral system
The Italian Senate has approved a bill by the parties of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s governing coalition to introduce a new electoral system. The document was backed by 113 senators, while 71 voted against it and two abstained, ANSA English reports.
After the vote in the upper house of parliament, the bill will return to the Chamber of Deputies for a third parliamentary reading.
New system and bonus seats
The document provides for replacing the current mixed system, which combines majoritarian and proportional components, with a proportional system. The coalition that receives the most votes and passes the 42% threshold will receive bonus seats to ensure a working majority in parliament.
If no coalition reaches this threshold or if the voting results for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate differ, a purely proportional system will be applied.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Opposition objections
Opposition forces opposed the reform, stating that the ruling alliance seeks to change the rules out of fear of losing the general election scheduled for next year. Before the final vote, opposition lawmakers held placards reading “No to the fraud law.”
The opposition also considers the proposed bonus-seat system unconstitutional. The bill allows voters to express preferences for three candidates out of six on a party list, where names must alternate by gender. At the same time, opponents of the reform call such preferences formal, since the first position on the list will be fixed, and warn that all first-listed candidates could theoretically be men.
The current electoral system does not allow voters to choose specific candidates from a party list.
