Electoral law, the Chamber rejects the preliminary objections: final vote on October 8

The Chamber of Deputies rejected on October 1 the preliminary constitutional objections raised by the opposition against the electoral law reform, with 229 votes against and 151 in favor. The vote was held by secret ballot, as provided for this type of vote on preliminary objections.

The newspaper had followed the reform’s passage through the Senate, where it had been definitively approved for that branch of Parliament: we wrote about it on September 15. The text had then returned to Montecitorio for the third reading, a step required under a bicameral system when amendments introduced by one branch of Parliament require a new reading by the other.

With the preliminary objections rejected, the parliamentary process enters its final phase. The conference of group leaders has set the final vote on the electoral law for Thursday, October 8: statements of vote are scheduled from 10.30 a.m., with the vote at 12.30 p.m.

Before reaching that stage, the government will call a confidence vote on Monday, October 5 on the first three articles of the text, those concerning preferences and the Trentino constituency — the same points on which the fiercest clashes had focused during the Senate’s examination, from multiple preferences to blocked list leaders. The use of a confidence vote on these articles signals the executive’s intention to shield the most contested points of the text before the final vote.

The timetable leading to the October 8 vote thus closes the reform’s process, after months of examination that first passed through the Senate’s Constitutional Affairs committee and then the chamber of Palazzo Madama, before returning to Montecitorio for the final reading. Thursday’s vote will conclude, barring further steps, the reform’s parliamentary process.