Govt parties find common ground on new election law

The parties of Premier Giorgia

Meloni's ruling coalition on Tuesday were close to finding

common ground on a new election law, having apparently overcome

disagreements on whether to enable voters to express preferences

about which candidates on a party's list they want to represent

them.

The opposition is crying foul about the ruling majority's drive

to overhaul the system, saying they are changing it because they

fear losing the general election set to take place next year and

want to minimize the chances of this happening.

The governing coalition has presented a bill that will see the

current system, a mix of first-past-the-post and proportional

representation, replaced with a proportional-representation

system with bonus seats for a coalition that obtains at least

42% of the vote to ensure it has a working majority in

parliament.

The coalition that comes first and crosses the threshold will

get 70 extra seats in the Lower House and 35 in the Senate.

If no coalition reaches the 42% threshold, or the votes for the

Lower House and the Senate produce different results, a purely

proportional system will be used.

On Monday Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) presented

an amendment with two small centrist parties, NM and UDC, to

give voters the option to express preferences for up to three

candidates on a list.

Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini's

right-wing League party said Tuesday that it would vote in

favour of the amendment.

The other major partner in the coalition, Deputy Premier and

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani's centre-right post-Berlusconi

Forza Italia party, is also set to back the amendment.

Ex-premier Giuseppe Conte's opposition 5-Star Movement (M5S) has

blasted the FdI-NM-UDC amendment, saying it would give voters

"fake preferences" as the head of the ticket would be "blocked".

Elly Schlein, the leader of the centre-left Democratic Party

(PD), said it would also be a step back for equality.

"If it passes, it means the ticket heads could all be men,"

Schlein said ."This demonstrates that Meloni is willing to

sacrifice other women to defend her hold on power".

The current system promotes gender balance by requiring that, in

each region, heads of lists of either sex for the same party

should not exceed 60% of the total and that candidates in all

lists must be in a sequence alternating by gender.

Tajani on Tuesday admitted that "there is an issue concerning

women.

"I have nevertheless guaranteed that women will have broad

representation on the candidate lists," he added.

"Since gender parity is not guaranteed in the electoral law, as

party secretary, I have guaranteed it before the whips and the

party's two deputy secretaries.

"The parties must take responsibility for ensuring women's

representation. It's also in their interest, given that there

are more female voters than male voters: I believe it's right to

give women broad representation."

The PD is set to request that amendments to the bill, including

on the preferences, be put to secret ballots.

This would make it easier for lawmakers belonging to the ruling

coalition to buck the line of their parties if they wanted to

without having to face consequences.

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