Election Reform Approved in Italy

Heeding the wishes of corruption-weary Italians for reforms, the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday approved the last step to make Parliament more directly elected by the people.

By a vote of 287 to 78, with 153 abstentions, the lower house gave final passage to a reform making three-fourths of the seats in the upper house, the Senate, directly elected. The remaining seats will be filled under Italy’s old system of proportional representation.

On Tuesday night, the Senate passed a similar change for the lower house.

The proportional system was blamed in part for political gridlock, because it rewarded even tiny parties with seats. And, because Italians were voting for a party but not the candidate, it made members of Parliament less answerable as individuals.

Under the new law, a party must get at least 4% of the vote nationally to earn a Parliament seat and--for 75% of the seats--voters will choose candidates, not parties.

Italians overwhelmingly voted in a referendum in April to change the election system after a year of political corruption scandals that implicated scores of Parliament members and hundreds of other public officials.

Prime Minister Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, when he took up his post after the referendum, made clear that a new Parliament should be elected after enactment of reforms.

But he also attached the condition that the current legislature, before being dissolved, pass a government budget that chips away at Italy’s deficit. Work on that--expected to take weeks if not months--won’t begin until after summer recess. Ciampi last week indicated that elections wouldn’t be held before next year.