Italicum run-off KO'd, bonus OK'd

(ANSA) - Rome, January 25 - 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.