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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Italy votes in referendum on downsizing parliament

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ROME: Italians headed to the polls on Sunday for a constitutional referendum over the slimming down of parliament and local elections expected to favour the right-wing national opposition bloc. Voting began at 7 am and ran until 11 pm on Sunday.


Voting continues on Monday from 7 am to 3 pm. Results are expected later on Monday. Some 51.6 million people are eligible to vote in the referendum on reducing the number of lawmakers in Italy’s two chambers by roughly one third.


The Chamber of Deputies would go from 630 lawmakers to 400, and the Senate from 315 to 200. No minimum turnout is needed for the vote to be valid, amid expectations that the reform will be approved. Early turnout was sluggish, with 12.25 per cent of the eligible voter shaving cast their ballot by Sunday afternoon.


Elections are also taking place in seven regions and just under 1,000 cities, including Venice in the north and Reggio Calabria in the south. Turnout for the regional polls was 13.1 per cent by Sunday afternoon,with the main national government parties — the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) -bracing for a poor showing.


The national opposition, led by Matteo Salvini of the far-right League, is expecting to win in at least three regions, including Veneto and Liguria in the north.


The PD is confident of victory only in Campania, the region around Naples, and is desperate to avoid defeat in Tuscany, a former leftist stronghold where a League candidate could achieve a historic win. The M5S has no strong candidates, but is likely to console itself with a referendum win.


It considers reducing the size of parliament part of its quest to end perks and privileges for politicians. Critics of the constitutional reform say it produces minimal cost savings and risks undermining the democratic system by weakening the authority of parliament.


In any case, a defeat for the government parties is unlikely to topple Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, as the PD and M5S have strong incentives to try to hold on to national power together.


One is the prospect of managing more than 200 billion euros ($238 billion) in loans and grants from the European Union due to arrive from 2021 as part of the bloc’s post-coronavirus recovery fund. Another is the opportunity to influence the parliamentary election of the next Italian president, due in January 2022, and avoid snap national polls, which the PD and M5S would likely lose. Pandemic-era restrictions were in place across all polling stations,many of which are located in school buildings.


Voters currently in self-isolation due to the coronavirus were permitted to vote from home on submitting an application on a one-off basis.


The poll is going ahead despite warnings against opening polling stations while COVID-19 case numbers are on the rise.


While Italy currently has fewer new cases than Britain, France or Spain, it is still recording more than 1,500 daily.


“The country is in a state of emergency; it is utterly contradictory to be massing people together at polling stations, particularly in light of the trend in Europe,” Professor Massimo Galli, infectious diseases chief at Milan’s Sacco hospital, said.


But Lorenzo Salvioni, a student in Rome, said he hoped “the country’s difficulties caused by COVID” would mobilise Italians to vote.


— Agencies


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