Electoral law, text deposited: proportional with prize, no preferences

After a long process of filing, the centre-right deposited the electoral law reform text in the House and Senate. The declared objective is 'to guarantee stability'. The general structure is the familiar one: the Rosatellum's single-member constituencies are to be overcome in favour of a proportional system with a majority prize (70 seats in the Chamber, 35 in the Senate) for the coalition that exceeds 40%, with a maximum threshold of 230 seats achievable in the Chamber and 114 in the Senate. Ballot between 35% and 40%. Name of the premier candidate on the programme (and not on the ballot paper). There will be no preferences. There will be a three per cent threshold.

The opposition's closure is immediate. 'This acceleration is the result of concern about the referendum result,' said PD secretary Elly Schlein on the sidelines of an event in Rome speaking about electoral law. Haste and fear of losing are not good counsellors'. From indiscretions, the text seems 'very distorting of representation'. It has 'elements that would be unacceptable to us'

The electoral reform presented by the centre-right therefore introduces 'a governability prize mechanism' that will be 'attributed to the list or coalition that has obtained the highest number of valid votes and reached the threshold established by law', identified in 'forty per cent as the minimum threshold' that 'sanctions its adequacy in terms of reasonableness and proportionality'. This is what is stated in the preamble to the text deposited in Parliament, which provides that 'the distribution of seats deriving from the prize' in the Senate should be of a 'regional nature'. The 'coherence between governability and representativeness' is 'ensured by the constraints placed on the size of the prize itself: the latter, both in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate, cannot exceed fifteen per cent of the seats, remaining anchored to the maximum threshold of 230 seats achievable in the Chamber of Deputies and 114 seats achievable in the Senate of the Republic'

The prize is awarded in full only if the coalition that comes first exceeds forty per cent of the votes. In the event that this threshold is not reached, a proportional distribution will be triggered. On the other hand, in the event that both the first- and second-place coalitions are between thirty-five and forty per cent, the bill tabled provides for a runoff

There are no preferences in the text of the electoral law reform presented by the centre-right but blocked lists of candidates. The proportional system with governability prize devised by the majority will be based on multi-nominal constituencies. The text provides that 'each voter has one vote to cast on a single ballot paper bearing the mark of each list, accompanied by the names of the candidates in the multi-member constituency and of the candidates on the constituency lists presented for the possible allocation of the governability prize'.