Electoral reform, the Chamber votes today for final approval by secret ballot

It is the day of the final vote. At the Chamber of Deputies, the concluding step on the electoral reform nicknamed the “Stabilicum” is scheduled for today, October 8, arriving at the finish line after a process marked by three confidence votes. The last one, obtained by the government yesterday on the first articles of the text, recorded 228 votes in favor, 144 against and three abstentions.

Today’s vote takes place by secret ballot, a procedural detail that in recent hours has become the real battleground of political conflict. The opposition has in fact called for a return to the manual voting system, with balls and ballot boxes, arguing that it is the only way to truly guarantee the secrecy of the vote and protect lawmakers from the risk of internal pressure within the majority. The fear, explicitly stated by the opposition, is that of so-called “hidden defectors”: deputies who, shielded by the anonymity of the vote, might depart from the line set by their own group.

On substance, the reform introduces a proportional electoral system, corrected by a majority bonus that assigns 70 additional seats in the Chamber and 35 in the Senate to the coalition or list that reaches the required threshold. It is a framework that substantially alters the balance with which parliamentary majorities are formed, and this is why today’s final passage is being watched closely by both the governing majority and the opposition.

On the majority’s side, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni chose a reassuring tone when asked about her state of mind on the eve of the vote: “Calm? I always am,” she said. A short statement signaling the intention to project confidence about the outcome, despite the fact that the secret ballot makes the numerical result less predictable than the confidence votes already won by wide margins.

On the opposing side, +Europa secretary Riccardo Magi made an explicit appeal to majority lawmakers who might have doubts about the text: “Majority under blackmail, disobey for democracy’s sake,” he wrote, in what amounts to an open call for a vote diverging from the party line, made possible precisely by the secrecy of the ballot.

Today’s contest is thus being played out on two intertwined levels: that of the reform’s content — the new proportional system with a majority bonus — and the more immediate one of the rules governing how it is voted. The opposition has chosen to focus its battle precisely on the latter, betting that the secrecy of the vote could produce surprises that the confidence votes, public by definition, did not allow to be tested.

The result of the final vote in the Chamber will close today a parliamentary process that went through three consecutive confidence votes on the first articles of the text.