The Constitutional Court on
Wednesday ruled a run-off envisaged in the Italicum election law
was illegitimate but left much of the law unchanged, saying it
could be applied straight away and leading many parties to press
for a fast election.
The court ruled legitimate, on the other hand, a winner's
bonus awarded to any party getting more than 40% of votes.
The top court declared illegitimate a part of the Italicum
allowing a list head elected in more than one constituency
to choose the constituency he wanted to represent.
The election law that emerges after the publication of the
Constitutional Court's sentence on the Italicum law will be
immediately applicable, the top court said in its ruling.
This latter point prompted the anti-establishment 5-Star
Movement (M5S) and the rightist Northern League to demand a snap
vote, with M5S leader Beppe Grillo saying 'Habemus Legalicum'
and an M5S lawmaker saying a new law could be readied "in two
weeks".
The ruling centre-left Democratic Party repeated it was in
favour of reviving the former 75% first-past-the-post
Mattarellum law but said there could also be a quick vote with
the two electoral systems that have emerged from Constitutional
Court rulings, the so-called Consultellums and their
proportional representation (PR) systems.
It said there was "no more time to be wasted" and urged
parties to debate a new law, reiterating that it was not afraid
of fresh elections.
Former premier Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, which
wants a return to pure PR, came out against a snap vote,
stressing that President Sergio Matteralla - the architect of
the Mattarellum when he was a minister many years ago - had
urged parliament to get to work on harmonising the electoral
systems of the two houses of parliament.
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