Italian parliamentary suffrage
The Italian Parliament suffrage includes the right to vote for the election of the two chambers of the Italian parliament , the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate . After a proportional representation system that had not changed much for decades until 1993 , there have been several fundamental changes since then. From 1993 to 2005 three quarters of the members of parliament were elected by majority vote and the remaining quarter by proportional representation. Majority and proportional representation were not completely separated. From 2005 to 2013, an electoral system was in place in which the seats were principally distributed proportionally, but the coalition or individual party with the most votes was guaranteed a 55% mandate. After this regulation was declared unconstitutional in 2013 and this was partly the case with a succession regulation passed in 2015, a fundamentally new electoral system was introduced again in 2017. According to this, three eighths of the seats are distributed according to a relative majority vote in single-constituencies and five eighths proportionally, whereby a 3% hurdle applies to the proportional seats.
Constitutional requirements
Both chambers are to be elected in a general and direct election.
Voting age
Citizens have the right to vote for the Chamber of Deputies when they are of legal age and for the Senate when they are at least 25 years old. The age of majority has been 18 since 1975, before that it was 21 years. Citizens of at least 25 years of age are eligible for election to the Chamber of Deputies; the minimum age for the Senate is 40 years.
Size of parliament chambers
Originally it was envisaged that there would be one member of the Chamber of Deputies for every 80,000 inhabitants and one senator for every 200,000 inhabitants. Since 1963, the number of members to be elected has been fixed at 630 for the Chamber of Deputies and 315 for the Senate. Former presidents and up to five persons appointed by the president join the Senate as members for life.
Electoral term
The electoral term of both chambers lasts five years if they are not dissolved beforehand. Both chambers have always been elected at the same time, although this is not legally mandatory. Until 1963, the constitution provided for a six-year electoral term for the Senate.
Electoral system
For the Chamber of Deputies, the constitution does not contain any provisions on the electoral system. It is only stipulated that the number of seats in the constituencies ( circoscrizioni ) must be proportional to their population. For the Senate it is stipulated that the Senators are to be elected on the basis of the regions . The Aosta Valley elect a Senator, Molise two senators. The seats in the Senate are distributed to the other regions proportionally to their population, but each of these regions has at least seven (until 1963: six) senators.
Italian expatriate
Since 2001, the election of twelve members of the Chamber of Deputies and six senators by Italians living abroad has been provided for in the constitution.
Compulsory elective
According to Article 48 of the Constitution, it is a civic duty to vote. Until 1993, the names of those eligible to vote who stayed away from the election without sufficient excuse were made publicly available by the municipalities for one month and the non-election for five years was recorded in the police clearance certificate. Failure to vote has had no consequences since 1993.
Electoral system from 1948 to 1993
The electoral system remained essentially the same from 1948 to 1993. A controversial change before the 1953 election ( legge truffa ), after which a party or coalition with an absolute majority of votes was guaranteed 380 of the then 590 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, did not apply because the Democrazia Cristiana and its allies remained just under 50% and this regulation was deleted again in 1954.
Chamber of Deputies
In Aosta, one MP was elected with a relative majority, the other MPs were elected in 31 constituencies (30 constituencies until Trieste was incorporated in 1954) of very different sizes by proportional representation. The two largest constituencies (Rome-Viterbo-Latina-Frosinone and Milan-Pavia) had around 50 MPs. The voter could choose a list and also give a preference vote to up to three applicants on the chosen list (up to four in constituencies with more than 15 seats). The constituency quotient was calculated for each constituency by dividing the number of all valid votes by the number of seats in the constituency increased by two (up to 1956: increased by three). With 1 million valid votes and 18 seats in the constituency, the constituency quotient was z. B. 1,000,000 / (18 + 2) = 50,000. The parties received one seat for each number of votes equal to a full constituency quotient. The remaining votes of the parties were added up nationwide, as were the seats not yet allocated in the individual constituencies. If more seats had been allocated in a constituency than there were seats to be allocated based on the constituency quotient, a new constituency quotient was calculated by dividing the number of votes in the constituency by the number of seats increased by one instead of increased by two.
Only parties that had won at least one constituency seat nationwide and (since 1956) at least 300,000 votes took part in the distribution of the remaining seats at national level. The seats that had not yet been allocated were distributed to these parties in proportion to their remaining votes using the Hare-Niemeyer procedure . Each national seat assigned to the party was assigned to one of its constituency lists; the constituency lists of the party with the most remaining votes in relation to the respective constituency quotient received an additional seat. The seats allocated to the list were occupied by the applicants with the most preferential votes. Until 1956, the seats distributed at the national level were filled via national party lists according to the list order. Only candidates who were on a constituency list could be named on the national list.
The allocation process easily favored large parties. In the elections from 1958 to 1992, the proportion of seats in the then dominant Democrazia Cristiana was always about three percentage points above their share of the vote. A large number of small parties were able to win seats; a share of the vote a little over 1% was usually sufficient. The largest party that did not get a seat was the PSIUP in the 1972 election with 1.94% of the vote. In 1991, the number of preferential votes was reduced to one because 95.6% of voters voted in favor in a referendum.
senate
For the election of the Senate, the country was divided into 239 constituencies (originally 237, increased by the incorporation of Trieste in 1954 and the formation of the Molise region in 1964). In 1948 the number of constituencies corresponded to the number of senators to be elected. When the Senate was later enlarged, the number of constituencies was not adjusted. Almost all constituencies remained unchanged from 1948 to 1993, which sometimes led to very different constituency sizes. Candidates could only be nominated at constituency level. In the constituency, whoever received at least 65% of the votes was elected. Only a few applicants succeeded in this; in the elections from 1963 to 1992 there were never more than five. The votes from constituencies where no one got 65% were added up in each region. The seats still to be allocated in the region were then allocated to the parties using the D'Hondt procedure . The seats that will be allocated to the party are occupied by the applicants with the highest percentage of votes in their constituencies.
Electoral system from 1993 to 2005
After the collapse of the traditional party system and a referendum in April 1993, in which 82.7% of the electorate supported a majority vote, Parliament passed a completely new electoral system in July 1993, in which around three-quarters of the seats were based on a relative majority in single-constituencies remaining quarter was allocated proportionally. Majority and proportional representation were not completely separated. The clear majorities hoped for by the new electoral system did not materialize. The desired reduction in the number of parties was undermined by constituency agreements. For the electoral system, the political scientist Giovanni Sartori coined the name Mattarellum , named after Sergio Mattarella, the legislator .
Chamber of Deputies
475 members of parliament were assigned after a relative majority vote in single constituencies, the remaining 155 seats via rigid regional lists in 26 regional constituencies. The voter had two votes, one for majority and one for proportional representation. Only parties who received at least 4% of the list votes nationwide took part in the distribution of the list seats.
The proportional seats were distributed nationwide according to the Hare-Niemeyer method . Success in the majority election was credited to a limited extent. If the candidate of a party had won in a single constituency, the number of votes of the runner-up (increased by one) was subtracted from the party's list votes, but at least 25% of the votes in this single constituency (but not more than the share of the vote of the constituency winner). If a victorious candidate was nominated by several parties, this deduction from the list votes was divided between these parties in proportion to the list votes of the parties in the single constituency. The crediting of their success in the majority election could avoid parties by running in the majority election under a different name. The alliance of Silvio Berlusconi therefore stood as a candidate in the 2001 election in the singles constituencies under the name Abolizione Scorporo .
The seats that the party had gained across the country were then allocated to the regional constituencies. The constituency quotient was determined for each regional constituency by dividing the votes to be taken into account by the number of seats in the constituency. A party received one seat for each full quotient. The remaining seats were allocated to the parties with the largest decimal points, starting with the constituency with the lowest population and then followed by the next larger constituency. If a party had reached the number of seats it was entitled to nationwide, it was no longer allocated any remaining seats. The seats allocated to a list were filled in the order of the list.
senate
The voters only had one vote for the Senate election. 232 seats were allocated according to a relative majority vote in single constituencies, the remaining 83 seats were allocated according to proportional representation within the regions, whereby here too, successes in single constituencies were credited to a limited extent. For the distribution of the proportional seats in the region, the votes for its candidates were added up for each party, whereby the votes of the candidates who were victorious in the constituencies were not included, and the seats were distributed to the parties according to the D'Hondt procedure. The seats allotted to the party were occupied by the applicants who were not elected in the constituencies with the largest share of the votes in their constituencies.
Electoral system 2005 to 2013
In 2005, at the instigation of the government of Silvio Berlusconi, a completely new electoral system was introduced. In principle, the seats were distributed proportionally, with the winner being guaranteed 55% of the seats. The parties were able to form coalitions with a common top candidate. With the exception of Aosta, the seats were allocated exclusively via rigid party lists, with the Senate at regional level, with the Chamber of Deputies at the level of the constituencies, which were identical to the regional constituencies formed in 1993. For the electoral system, the political scientist Giovanni Sartori coined the name Porcellum . He referred to a statement by Roberto Calderolis , who, as the legislator, had described the result of the electoral reform as porcata ("mess").
Chamber of Deputies
Due to a constitutional amendment in 2001, twelve of the 630 seats went to Italians living abroad, one was still elected by a relative majority in the Aosta Valley. The following took part in the distribution of the remaining 617 seats:
- Non-coalition parties that received at least 4% of the vote nationwide.
- Parties that represented a linguistic minority only ran in one constituency and won at least 20% of the votes there. Practically only the South Tyrolean People's Party could overcome this hurdle .
- Coalitions, if they got at least 10% of the vote nationwide and at least one party got 2%. If a coalition failed because of the threshold clause, the parties involved still took part in the distribution of seats if they overcame the four percent threshold or the threshold clause for minorities.
The seats were distributed proportionally to these coalitions and parties. The Hare-Niemeyer method was used for this and for the other proportional allocation of seats. If the coalition with the largest number of votes or a party entering outside a coalition did not receive at least 340 seats (approx. 55% of the 617 seats), its number of seats was increased to 340 and the remaining 277 seats were proportionally distributed among the other parties.
Within a coalition, the seats were proportionally distributed among the participating parties with at least 2% of the vote nationwide. The largest of the coalition parties, which had achieved less than 2%, also took part in this distribution, as did minority parties that overcame their hurdle. The seats of the individual parties were then allocated to the constituencies in a complicated process, so that on the one hand each party received the number of seats it was entitled to nationwide and on the other hand (with the exception of exceptional cases) each constituency received the number of seats it was entitled to based on population. The seats to which the party is entitled in the constituency were filled in the order in which they were listed.
senate
For Trentino-Alto Adige , the electoral law that had been in force since 1993 was retained; in the Aosta Valley, a seat was still awarded based on a relative majority. Six new seats were introduced for Italians living abroad. The remaining seats were allocated proportionally in line with the right to vote for the Chamber of Deputies, with the winner being guaranteed at least 55% of the seats. Since the constitution provides for the distribution of seats in the Senate on a regional basis, the seats were only distributed within the regions and 55% of the seats there were guaranteed to the coalition or individual party with the largest number of votes in the region.
The following took part in the distribution of seats in the individual regions:
- Non-coalition parties that received at least 8% of the vote in the region.
- Coalitions if they received at least 20% of the vote in the region and at least one party involved got 3%. If a coalition failed because of the threshold clause, the parties involved still took part in the distribution of seats if they overcame the 8% hurdle.
The seats were distributed proportionally to these coalitions and parties. The Hare-Niemeyer method was used for this and for the other proportional allocation of seats. If the coalition with the largest number of votes or a party entering outside a coalition did not receive at least 55% of the seats in the region, its share of seats was increased to 55%. The remaining seats were distributed proportionally among the other coalitions and parties. If 55% of the seats were not a whole number, the number was rounded up. In Molise, where only two seats were available, there was no majority bonus.
Within a coalition, the seats were distributed proportionally among the participating parties with at least 3% of the vote. Seats allotted to a party were filled in the order in their list.
Effects
In the House of Representatives, the nationwide winner was guaranteed a clear majority, but not in the Senate. In the individual regions, other parties or coalitions were also able to win in the Senate elections and thus benefit from them. In the parliamentary elections in 2006 and 2008 , the coalition leading in the election to the Chamber of Deputies also won a majority in the Senate , whereas in the parliamentary elections in 2013 the compositions of the two chambers were very different. Pier Luigi Bersani's left-wing alliance received almost the most votes with 29.5% of the votes (the victorious coalition accounted for 49.8% in 2006 and 46.8% in 2008) and thus received 340 of the 630 seats (plus 5 of the 12 Seats of the Italians living abroad). In the Senate, however, the coalition only made up 39% of the elected members.
Judgment of the Constitutional Court
In December 2013, central parts of the electoral system were declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court . Affected were the guaranteed mandate share of 55% for the winner and the rigid lists, which did not allow the election of individual candidates. The resulting proportional representation was given the name Consultellum by the press (after Consulta , informal name for the constitutional court), but was never applied due to the subsequent reforms.
Reform 2015
In response to the constitutional court ruling, the electoral law was reformed again in 2015. Only the right to vote for the Chamber of Deputies was changed, as a constitutional reform was planned that would largely deprive the Senate of power and abolish direct election of the Senate. This constitutional reform was rejected in a referendum on December 4, 2016 . The proportional representation with a majority premium should remain. However, electoral coalitions were abolished and the strongest party should only be guaranteed a majority if it received 40% of the vote. If neither party got 40%, there should be a runoff. This electoral system, for which the name Italicum , coined by his promoter Matteo Renzi , was naturalized, was never used.
Constituencies and votes
Special regulations should apply to the Aosta Valley and Trentino-South Tyrol, the rest of the country was divided into 100 constituencies with three to nine seats, depending on the population. The voter could choose a constituency list and also give up to two applicants from this list a preferential vote. The lists should always be filled with men and women alternately, and a maximum of 60% (rounded to the nearest whole number) of the list leaders within a region could belong to the same gender.
Distribution of seats
618 seats (the remaining 12 should go to foreign Italians) should be distributed proportionally among the parties with at least 3% of the votes nationwide according to the Hare-Niemeyer procedure. If the strongest party got at least 40%, it should get at least 340 seats. If neither party achieved 40%, a runoff election was to take place two weeks later between the two parties with the highest vote, the winner of which received 340 seats. After increasing the number of seats in one party to 340 seats, the remaining seats should be distributed proportionally among the other parties.
The seats were then to be allocated to the constituency lists in a complicated procedure, similar to the regulation introduced in 2005. The first of the seats allocated to a list should go to the leader of the list, and any further seats to the other candidates with the most preferential votes.
Special rules for Aosta and Trentino-South Tyrol
In the Aosta Valley, a seat should continue to be allocated based on a relative majority. In Trentino-Alto Adige eight seats were to be allocated by relative majority voting in single-constituencies, the remaining seats to which the region is entitled should be distributed proportionally according to the proportion of the population. In the event of a runoff election, the winner should get two thirds of these proportional seats. Seats that go to parties in Aosta or Trentino-Alto Adige that fail the nationwide 3% hurdle should be deducted from the 618 seats to be distributed nationwide.
Judgment of the Constitutional Court
In February 2017, the runoff election was declared unconstitutional. The guaranteed majority in the event that the strongest party reached over 40% was found to be constitutional. No party has received 40% of the vote since 1958.
Electoral system from 2017
After the failure of the constitutional reform in 2016, there were widely divergent electoral systems for the House of Representatives and Senate, the majority voting elements of which were no longer applicable due to the constitutional court rulings. Thus a pure proportional representation with a threshold clause was in effect. After a first attempt to reform electoral law had failed a few months earlier, parliament passed an electoral law reform in October 2017, which came into force on November 12, 2017. It is a so-called ditch suffrage , in which about three eighths of the seats are distributed by majority vote and five eighths proportionally. The name Rosatellum prevailed as the name of the electoral system , named after the legislator Ettore Rosato .
Chamber of Deputies
12 MPs are elected by Italians living abroad, of the remaining 618 seats, 232 (approx. 37.5%) are awarded by majority voting in single-constituencies and 386 by nationwide proportional representation. Parties can enter into coalitions, which can be an advantage, especially in majority elections, since coalitions in single-constituencies always have a common applicant. An exception applies to parties belonging to linguistic minorities. You can run your own direct candidate even if you belong to a coalition.
Constituencies and lists
Italy is divided into 28 regional constituencies ( circoscrizioni ). Most regions form a regional constituency. There are two regional constituencies in Piedmont , Veneto , Lazio , Campania and Sicily , and four in Lombardy . These regional constituencies (except Aosta Valley ) are again divided into multi-person constituencies ( collegi plurinominali ) for proportional representation . In smaller regional constituencies there is only one multi-person constituency, larger regional constituencies are subdivided into several multi-person constituencies which, depending on the size of the population, have four to eight list seats. By decree of December 12, 2017, 63 multi-member constituencies were formed. Aosta has one, Trentino-Alto Adige six and Molise two singles- electoral districts ( collegi uninominali ) for the majority election , the rest of Italy is divided into singles- electoral districts by decree, the population of which may deviate from the average by a maximum of 20%. Each single constituency must lie entirely within the boundaries of a multi-person constituency.
Each applicant may only stand as a candidate in one constituency. A simultaneous candidacy in single and multi-person constituencies is possible. An applicant may run in a maximum of five multi-person constituencies. A candidacy for different parties is not allowed, apart from the candidacy as a direct candidate of a coalition. The number of candidates per list is at most as high as the number of seats to be allocated in the multi-person constituency and is at least half of this. In no case may a list contain fewer than two or more than four applicants. Each coalition or party outside a coalition participating in the election in the multi-person constituency must nominate a direct candidate for each single constituency in this area.
No more than 60% of candidates in a party or coalition in single-constituencies across the country may be of the same gender. Likewise, a maximum of 60% of all list candidates in a party may belong to the same gender nationwide, with a maximum of 60% of all list leaders being allowed to belong to the same gender. If 60% of the candidates are not a whole number, they are rounded up to the next whole number. In addition, the list places must always be occupied alternately by men and women.
be right
The names of the candidates in the singles constituency are listed on the ballot, including the parties for which this applicant is running. The voter has one vote. He can vote for either a party or one of the candidates in the singles constituency. If the vote is given to a party, the vote also counts as a vote for its candidate in the single constituency. Conversely, a vote for a candidate in the electoral circle also counts as a vote for the party. If a constituency candidate was nominated by a coalition of several parties, the votes cast for him are distributed among these parties in proportion to the votes that are allotted to the parties in the single constituency.
Distribution of seats
Single constituency
In the singles constituency, the applicant with the most votes is elected, in the event of a tie, the youngest.
Proportional representation
The following take part in the allocation of seats:
- Non-coalition parties that receive at least 3% of the vote nationwide.
- Parties that represent a linguistic minority only vote in one region and win at least 20% of the vote or two direct mandates there. This hurdle can practically only be overcome by the South Tyrolean People's Party .
- Coalitions, if they receive at least 10% of the votes nationwide and at least one party involved reaches 3% or if the threshold clause for parties of linguistic minorities is overcome. Parties that achieve less than 1% of the vote will not be taken into account when calculating the coalition's vote count (unless they have overcome the minority threshold). If a coalition fails because of the threshold, the parties involved still take part in the distribution of seats if they have passed the three percent threshold or the threshold for minorities.
The seats are proportionally distributed to the participating coalitions and parties according to their nationwide number of votes using the Hare-Niemeyer method . Within the coalition, the seats are then distributed according to the Hare-Niemeyer procedure among the parties that have won at least 3% of the votes nationwide or have overcome the threshold clause for parties of linguistic minorities.
Allocation of seats in multiple constituencies
After the nationwide distribution of the proportional seats, they are first distributed to the regional constituencies and then to the multi-person constituencies in a complicated process. In each regional constituency, the seats are allocated to the coalitions and the parties outside of coalitions according to the Hare-Niemeyer procedure.
If every coalition or party does not receive exactly the number of seats it is entitled to nationwide, seats will be reallocated. It starts with the coalition or party with the most surplus seats (with the same number for the one with the most votes nationwide), then the others follow in descending order of their surplus seats. The coalition or party is deleted from one seat in each of the regional constituencies, where they received remaining seats in the distribution according to the Hare-Niemeyer method with the lowest decimal residues, proceeding in ascending order of the decimal residues. The seat is then allocated among the coalitions or parties that still have seats to the one that has the largest decimal remainder in this regional constituency that did not lead to the allocation of a seat. If no more seats can be redistributed in a regional constituency in this way, this will be skipped. If such a redistribution is no longer possible in any regional constituency, the coalitions that still have surplus seats will each have one seat taken away in the regional constituencies with their smallest decimal remainder and the parties that still have seats in the constituencies with their largest unused decimal remains an additional seat allocated to each.
The seats that the coalition has received in the regional constituencies will then be distributed among the parties in accordance with the Hare-Niemeyer process. If not every party receives its nationwide seats, seats will be redistributed within the coalition according to the procedure described above.
If there is more than one multi-person constituency in the regional constituency, the seats are distributed among them. In the multi-member constituencies, the seats are distributed according to the Hare-Niemeyer procedure. If each party does not have as many seats as it is entitled to in the regional constituency, seats will be redistributed according to the procedure described above.
The seats on a list are occupied by their applicants in the order of the list. The applicants elected by majority vote are not considered. If an applicant is elected on several constituency lists, he will be assigned a seat on the list that has the lowest percentage of votes in its constituency.
If a list is exhausted, the seat is assigned to another list of the party in the regional constituency. If this is not possible, the seat of the unelected direct candidate of the party with the highest share of the vote within the multi-person constituency or, if this is not possible either, within the regional constituency. If the seat cannot be transferred to another applicant within the regional constituency, it is allocated to an applicant of the party from another regional constituency in a complicated procedure.
senate
The election process for the Senate is very similar to that for the Chamber of Deputies. 116 seats will be allocated by majority vote in single constituencies, 193 proportionally via lists and the remaining six will be elected by Italians living abroad. The numbers are exactly half as high as in the election for the Chamber of Deputies.
The most important difference to the election of the Chamber of Deputies is that the proportional seats are only distributed within the regions , while the House of Representatives has a nationwide proportional distribution of the list seats. In smaller regions there is a multi-person constituency, the other regions are divided into several multi-person constituencies with five to eight list seats. There are a total of 33 electoral constituencies for the Senate. Six of the single electoral districts are in Trentino-South Tyrol, one each in Molise and the Aosta Valley, and the remaining 108 in the other regions in proportion to their population figures. The electoral system for the Senate is otherwise identical to that for the Chamber of Deputies. The threshold clauses (with the exceptions for linguistic minorities) also apply nationwide, as in the case of the election to the Chamber of Deputies. A party that reaches 3% nationwide can also get list seats in regions where it is below 3%. Conversely, a party that fails to meet the nationwide threshold does not get any list seats where it receives more than 3% of the vote. In many regions, a share of the vote well over 3% may be required for a seat.
Planned changes in electoral law
In 2019, the parliament passed a constitutional amendment to downsize the parliament, which will be finally decided in a referendum . It is planned that the number of members to be elected in the Chamber of Deputies will decrease from 630 to 400 and in the Senate 315 to 200, of which eight instead of twelve members in the Chamber of Deputies and four instead of six members in the Senate will be elected by Italians living abroad. In the Senate, the minimum number of seven senators per region (except for the Molise and Aosta Valley regions ) should be replaced by a minimum of three senators per region and autonomous province ( South Tyrol and Trentino ).
In connection with the planned downsizing of Parliament, there were renewed discussions about electoral law reform. In January 2020 the governing parties, with the exception of Liberi e Uguali, agreed on a new electoral system called the Germanicum . According to the draft law presented on January 9, 2020, the following changes should be made to the existing electoral law:
- In principle, the seats should be distributed on a proportional basis with a 5% hurdle. The single constituencies are abolished. The regional constituencies remain unchanged, and their subdivision into multi-person constituencies remains unchanged. The maximum number of four candidates on the lists is to be abolished.
- When electing the Chamber of Deputies, the seats should be distributed across the country proportionally according to the Hare-Niemeyer procedure . All parties are taken into account that win at least 5% of the votes nationwide and parties that represent a linguistic minority only compete in one region and receive at least 15% of the votes there.
- Parties under the threshold clause can also win seats in the Chamber of Deputies if they win at least three constituency quotients in at least two regions. The constituency quotient is calculated by dividing the number of valid votes in the regional constituency by the number of members of the constituency increased by two. For each full quotient, one seat is allocated to these parties. The seats won in this way will be deducted from the seats allocated to the parties above the threshold clause.
- In the election of the Senate, the seats within the region should be proportionally distributed according to the Hare-Niemeyer procedure to the parties that receive at least 5% of the votes nationwide or 15% of the votes in the region. Parties below the threshold get one seat for each full constituency quotient (valid votes in the region by increasing the number of seats in the region by two). Such seats are subtracted from the seats that are allocated to the parties above the threshold. In Trentino-Alto Adige , the relative majority vote in single-constituencies is retained.
Italian expatriate
Since the parliamentary elections in 2006 there have been twelve seats in the Chamber of Deputies and six in the Senate, elected by Italians living abroad. The election takes place in four constituencies:
- Europe without Italy: Chamber of Deputies 5 seats, Senate 2 seats
- South America: Chamber of Deputies 4 seats, Senate 2 seats
- North and Central America: Chamber of Deputies 2 seats, Senate one seat
- Rest of the world: a seat in both chambers
If a seat is available, the relative majority decides, otherwise the seats are proportionally distributed according to the Hare-Niemeyer procedure .
Web link
- Electoral provisions, as of January 2018 (PDF; 9.2 MB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ M. Donald Hancock: Politics in Western Europe , first edition 1993, p. 318
- ↑ Testo unico delle leggi recanti norm per la elezione della Camera dei deputati , Article 115, repealed by decree of December 20, 1993, No. 534
- ↑ Testo unico delle leggi per l'elezione della Camera dei Deputati of February 5, 1948
- ^ Election Act, original version from 1957
- ^ M. Donald Hancock: Politics in Western Europe , first edition 1993, p. 352 f.
- ^ M. Donald Hancock: Politics in Western Europe , first edition 1993, p. 353
- ^ The Political Systems of Western Europe , first edition 1997, p. 522
- ↑ Law of August 4, 1993, No. 277
- ↑ Law of August 4, 1993, No. 276
- ↑ Law of December 21, 2005, No. 270
- ↑ Calderoli: "La legge elettorale? L'ho scritta io, ma è una porcata" , La Repubblica , March 15, 2006
- ^ Spiegel online: Supreme Court declares electoral law unconstitutional
- ^ Law of May 6, 2015 , Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana
- ↑ Stuttgarter Zeitung, January 26, 2017: Partly against the constitution
- ↑ Law of November 3, 2017 , Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana
- ↑ a b Decree of December 12, 2017, No. 189
- ↑ a b Decree of December 28, 2017
- ^ Konrad Adenauer Foundation: The new electoral law in Italy
- ↑ Decree of December 28, 2017
- ↑ Chamber of Deputies: PROPOSTA DI LEGGE COSTITUZIONALE (1585-B) (PDF; 149 KB)
- ↑ La Repubblica: Legge elettorale, arriva il Germanicum: depositato il testo che prevede proporzionale, sbarramento al 5% e diritto di tribuna
- ↑ Chamber of Deputies: Draft law by Member of Parliament Brescia of January 9, 2020 (PDF; 191 KB)