The reform of the electoral law «is placed along a clear line: the overcoming of the single-member component and the recomposition of the system around a renewed proportional model which fits fully into the Italian constitutional tradition and the republican history of proportional electoral systems, adapting the tools to the needs that have emerged in the application practice».
Proportional and majority bonus: run-off is contemplated
This is what we read in the text of the centre-right electoral law reform. «In this model, proportionality remains the rule for allocating seats, but it is integrated by a governability corrective that is numerically predetermined and can only be activated when explicit conditions of consensus occur. The regulation provides – we read in the text – that the bonus always operates in the cases established by law, according to objective and predetermined parameters, ensuring certainty of the result and predictability of the effects. Where necessary, a run-off between the most voted lists or coalitions is contemplated, in order to allow voters to express a clear and definitive choice regarding the formation of the parliamentary majority in the single Chamber”.
“The resulting system – it is explained – achieves a balance between two fundamental needs: on the one hand, the proportional representation of political pluralism; on the other, the possibility of ensuring a defined majority, legitimized by a verifiable consensus”.
The prize is triggered if 40% of the votes are reached
The proposal to modify the electoral system of the Chambers is based, it is further underlined, in the elimination of the single-member component of the current system and of the single-member constituencies, «without prejudice to the particular cases provided for in the provisions for the Valle d’Aosta and Trentino-Alto Adige», in the allocation of seats with a proportional method, on a national basis for the Chamber of Deputies and on a regional basis for the Senate of the Republic, «in coherence with the constitutional principles of representativeness of the elective assemblies». And in the introduction of a numerically predetermined governability bonus, “equal to seventy seats for the Chamber of Deputies and thirty-five for the Senate of the Republic, attributed to the list or coalition that achieved the highest electoral figure and at least forty percent of the valid votes in the relevant Assembly”.