Confidence votes begin in the Chamber on the electoral law

Confidence votes called by the government on the first articles of the electoral law reform begin today in the Chamber. The first two confidence votes are scheduled for Tuesday, October 6, the third the following day, Wednesday, October 7. The parliamentary process of the reform thus reaches a decisive stage, with the government choosing the confidence vote tool to secure the text in its initial parts.

The final vote on the measure will be held Thursday, by secret ballot. This is a procedural detail that carries weight: unlike the confidence votes of the previous days, the concluding vote will not bind parliamentary groups to the majority discipline typical of a confidence vote, leaving open the possibility of defections or surprises in the Montecitorio chamber.

The opposition reacted harshly to the government’s decision to resort to a confidence vote on a text concerning the rules of democratic competition. In a statement reported by Today.it, opposition parliamentary groups spoke of an “unworthy conclusion” to the process that brought the reform to the floor.

The sequence of votes outlines a very tight schedule: two confidence votes on Tuesday, a third on Wednesday, the final secret vote on Thursday. In just three days, the Chamber will therefore have to complete a passage that touches on the rules by which Italians will elect the next Parliament, a subject that by its nature normally requires longer periods of discussion among political forces.

The use of confidence votes on multiple articles of the same measure, spread over two different days, reflects the government’s intention to speed up approval ahead of any further attempts at obstruction by the opposition, which has already expressed its opposition to the method chosen to push the reform through. On Thursday, with the secret ballot on the overall text, the first reading phase in the Chamber will close.