Electoral law: the House of Commons has also approved the third vote of confidence; the final vote by secret ballot will take place tomorrow

The House of Commons has also given the green light to the third vote of confidence with 228 votes in favour (the latest) tabled by the government on the new electoral law (this time concerning Article 3 of the bill) following the first two passed on Tuesday – with 226 and 227 votes in favour – respectively on Articles 1 and 2. The majority has once again shown great unity today, again in an open vote. All centre-right MPs were present and there were very few absences, all of which were strictly authorised. The call to arms has worked so far.

This morning, the Chamber also approved, without a vote of confidence, Article 8 (which extends voting rights to students living away from home and family carers), as amended by the Senate. The opposition parties abstained. This will be followed this afternoon – and may continue into the evening – by the consideration of the agenda items.

Final approval for new electoral law (known as Stabilicum or Melonellum), on which the opposition has called for a secret ballot, is expected on Thursday. A development now taken for granted by everyone, given Giorgia Meloni’s “threat” of snap elections should the bill be rejected in a secret ballot.

The first two articles approved in the version passed by the Senate (which include changes regarding preferences and signatures for electoral lists) set out the (identical) rules for the new voting system for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate: abolition of single-member constituencies provided for under the current electoral law (known as the Rosatellum) and the introduction of a proportional representation system with a 3 per cent threshold (but with the first party falling below the threshold being included within coalitions) and a majority bonus for the coalition that exceeds 42 per cent of the votes. A bonus allocated not as a percentage, but as a fixed quota of 70 members of the Chamber of Deputies and 35 senators, up to a ceiling of 220 members of the Chamber of Deputies and 113 senators. The third article, which has been given the green light, redraws certain constituencies in Trentino-Alto Adige.

Preferential votes, which were rejected by the Chamber of Deputies in mid-July, were in fact reintroduced when the Senate examined the bill. In addition to the party-list vote, each voter may cast up to three preferential votes for candidates on the list they have voted for, from among those who are not the list leaders. A preference vote is cast by ticking the box to the left of the chosen candidate’s name. If more than one preference is expressed, these must be for candidates of different genders; otherwise, the second and third preferences in the list order will be invalidated. Furthermore, the gender quota of 40/60 does not apply to list leaders (who are fixed) but only to the lists as a whole: a shortcoming that will certainly have a negative impact on female representation.