Italian govt wins last of 3 confidence votes on electoral law

12 Oct, 2017 12:35 / Updated 7 years ago

The Italian government on Thursday won the last of three confidence votes it had called on a contested electoral law, Reuters reports. The center-left coalition, supported by most mainstream opposition center-right parties, says the reform is needed to harmonize disparate voting systems in the upper and lower houses of parliament. The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement refuses to join any alliance and says the reform could cost it at least 50 seats in the next parliament, hindering its chances of taking power. The bill now faces a secret ballot by the same parliamentarians in the lower house. Dissident parliamentarians of all colors will have a chance to shoot it down, as happened in June to a previous electoral proposal.