Lower House approves controversial bill for new election system

The Lower House on Thursday approved

a controversial bill presented by Premier Giorgia Meloni's

ruling coalition to change the election system with 217 votes in

favour, 152 against and two abstentions.

The bill now goes to the Senate.

The opposition has cried foul about the bid to overhaul the

electoral system, saying the ruling majority 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 bill would 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 gets 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 is used.

On Tuesday the ruling coalition lost an important vote on an

amendment to give voters the option to express preferences about

candidates on electoral lists after dozens of its lawmakers

broke ranks to reject it in a secret ballot.

The opposition parties said the defeat showed the government had

lost the support of its own MPs and called for early elections

but the executive has ruled this out.

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