The ‘Bonsai’ column in Repubblica has, over the past few months, been painting a wonderful picture of Vannino Chiti – Minister in charge of relationships with Parliament – as a type of electoral Lieutenant Columbo. From Wikipedia: Columbo’s signature technique was to exit the scene of an interview, invariably stopping in the doorway or returning [...]
From repubblica.it comes information on the size of constituencies in the new electoral system proposed in the ‘bozza Chiti’. They will be ‘sub-provinciale’, at most, ‘provinciale’. Let’s assume conservatively that the constituencies will be equal to the number of provinces. Let’s also assume, as a simplifying measure, that the constituencies will all be given the [...]
Repubblica and the Corriere both report that the centre-left majority has reached agreement on electoral reform. The reform will replace the current law with a system similar to that used for regional elections. The text therefore is close to joint position of the centre-right, which augurs well for its chances of quick passage. By including [...]
Recently, the debate about electoral reform in Italy has begun to move quite quickly. A number of parties – including the pivotal UDC – seem to favour the German mixed-member system. Rocco Buttiglione, in yesterday’s Repubblica, claimed that such an electoral system would leave Italy with four parties – radical left, centre-left, centre, and respectable [...]
Today’s FT publishes a letter written by David Hine, Alan Renwick and me, on the issue of the Italian electoral system, recently the object of much debate: Sir, Alexander Stille’s analysis of Italy’s current troubles focuses on the electoral reform rushed in by Silvio Berlusconi ahead of last spring’s election (“Prodi and the problem of [...]
Senate President Franco Marini today defined the new electoral law ¨a monster¨. The law, passed in December of 2005 and already dubbed a ´piece of rubbish´ by its author was criticised for delivering different results in the Camera and in the Senate and for using closed party lists. ¨Citizens are no longer the referees¨, said [...]