Rosatellum has numbers in House - Renzi (3)

(ANSA) - Rome, May 24 - The Democratic Party's (PD) Rosatellum electoral law proposal "has the numbers in the (Lower) House, now we have to see in the Senate", PD leader and ex-premier Matteo Renzi said Wednesday. The Lower House's Constitutional affairs committee on Tuesday adopted the so-called Rosatellum proposal forwarded by Premier Paolo Gentiloni's PD as the white paper for a possible new election law.
    The 'Rosatellum,' named after PD House whip Ettore Rosato, envisages the election of half of MPs on a first-past-the-post basis and the other half by pure proportional representation from blocked party lists.
    The bill sets a 5% threshold for seats in parliament.
    Italy needs a new election law as its systems for the Senate and the Lower House are different following the rejection of ex-premier Matteo Renzi's Constitutional reform in a referendum in December.
    The centre-left PD and the Northern League were among the parties to vote in favour of the move, while the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia were against.