Italian court reviewing electoral law
ROME: Italy’s highest court began deliberations on Tuesday to rule on the legality of the country’s latest electoral law with the decision likely to influence the timing of the next election. An unambiguous ruling offering a simple solution to Italy’s electoral tangle could open the way for an early ballot by June.
A more nuanced, convoluted reading would almost certainly leave parliament in place until the legislature ends in early 2018. The constitutional court is expected to announce its verdict later on Tuesday or on Wednesday, opening the way for a likely overhaul of the contested law, known as the Italicum, which was introduced by former prime minister Matteo Renzi in 2015.
The law only relates to the lower house of parliament. It envisaged a ballot staged over two rounds that guaranteed a big majority to the winning party while granting party bosses wide powers to handpick their preferred candidates. Renzi said the Italicum would bring political stability to Italy, but critics complained that it concentrated too much power in the hands of the winning party and did not allow voters to directly choose their representatives.
“If the court intervenes to change the electoral law, removing the second round and essentially leaving a proportional system in place, then the likelihood of an election this year is very high,” said Anna Ascani, a lawmaker close to Renzi.
“But there’s no consensus in parliament on what kind of electoral law to write should the court only make suggestions to change the current law,” she said, saying such a scenario would make a snap vote in 2017 highly unlikely. Renzi resigned last month after a crushing defeat in a referendum on his plans to overhaul the constitution, but he remains leader of the ruling Democratic Party (PD) and is pushing for elections to allow him to return to power.