Politics
At Montecitorio •
Electoral law: the Chamber of Deputies passes a vote of confidence on the first two articles
The majority has passed a vote of confidence in the government, with 226 in favour and 147 against on the first amendment, and 227 in favour and 149 against on the second. The two amendments introduce a preferential voting system with fixed-position list leaders and an increase in the number of signatures required. The third amendment will be voted on tomorrow, whilst final approval is scheduled for Thursday.
No surprises there; the majority holds firm. Early this afternoon, the Chamber of Deputies voted and confirmed its confidence in the government regarding the first two articles of the electoral law. At the first roll call for the first article, 376 deputies were present in the Chamber. Of these, 373 voted in favour and 3 abstained. There were 226 votes in favour and 147 against. Later in the afternoon, during the roll call for Article 2, there were 227 votes in favour, 149 against and three abstentions.
In the first article of the draft bill, in the Senate, amendments have been introduced that have reintroduced preferential voting with a fixed list of candidates (the amendments rejected by the Chamber of Deputies last July) and an increase in the number of signatures required to be collected for the submission of lists by parties not currently represented in Parliament in order to stand in the election (which is infuriating Alessandro Onorato and other smaller parties). Tomorrow, the same procedure will apply to Article 3. The final vote on the electoral law, however, is expected on Thursday, with the opposition having formally requested a secret ballot yesterday.
