THE Italian Left blamed last night’s election chaos on Silvio Berlusconi’s decision last December to reintroduce a fiendishly complex system of proportional representation.

A referendum in 1993 gave Italy an electoral system in which three quarters of seats were allotted by a Westminster-style first-past-the-post system and a quarter by proportional representation. This was hailed at the time as a move towards stability and an end to fragile revolving-door coalitions. The Centre Left duly ruled for five years after Romano Prodi’s victory in 1996, and Signor Berlusconi ruled for another five years after winning in 2001.

The Left said that there had been no popular demand for a reversion to full PR, and Signor Berlusconi had reverted to it in a “blatantly cynical move” to undermine Romani Prodi’s chances of victory. It said that the Centre Left was put at a disadvantage by proportional representation, since the centre-left coalition included parties unlikely to reach the required 2 per cent threshold in the Lower House.The new law allocates parliamentary seats to parties in accordance with their share of the votes. Voters do not choose candidates, but put a cross on the symbol of a party. The more votes a party gets, the more candidates get seats.

The reform also provides for thresholds: if parties belong to a coalition they must win at least 2 per cent of the national vote in order to be represented in the Lower House. Those standing alone have to get 4 per cent.

In the Senate the threshholds are slightly different: 3 per cent for parties belonging to a coalition and 8 per cent for those standing alone.

Signor Prodi opposed the electoral reform at the time, saying that it went against the will of voters. The Opposition boycotted the vote on the new electoral law, which was pushed through by the Centre Right alone, and vowed to return to a first-past-the-post system if it came to power.

Even some members of the Centre Right expressed reservations over the law. Last month one of the law’s authors, Roberto Calderoli, of the Northern League, the Minister for Reform, described it as a mess.

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