Referendum result 'totally open' (3)

(ANSA) - Palermo, December 2 - Premier Matteo Renzi told a Yes rally ahead of Sunday's Constitutional referendum Friday that "the result of the referendum is totally open, it'll be settled by a handful of votes". Renzi's government may fall if the No vote wins the referendum on his executive's changes to the Constitution to overhaul Italy's political machinery.
    The government says the reform will end gridlock and make passing legislation cheaper by, among other things, turning the Senate into a leaner body made up of regional representatives with fewer lawmaking powers.
    Opponents say the reform would leave too much power in the hands of the executive.
    Renzi told a rally in Palermo Friday that "if the Yes wins Italy on Monday morning will be a simpler and stronger country".
    He said that if the No wins, "there won't be locusts, but the same old crowd. "It's not me on the line, I could leave tomorrow morning." Renzi added that it had been "a beautiful thing to serve the State". Almost all of the opposition and some rebel members of Renzi's own centre-left Democratic Party (PD) are backing the No camp, which was ahead in the polls before a pre-election ban on their publication kicked in.
    The reform would complete the elimination of Italy's 110 provinces on the premise they are redundant and expensive.
    It would also reduce the Senate by two thirds (from 300 to 100), and do away with the equal powers between the Upper and Lower Houses of parliament - an unusual system that has been blamed for decades of political gridlock.
    It does away with the CNEL, an organ with 64 councillors plus a president, too.