All political elections of 25 September 2022 over 51 and a half million Italians are called to elect the new Parliament. With this vote, the nineteenth legislature will kick off, but this time - compared to the previous ones - there are at least three new things to report: the first concerns the timing, the other two the audience of voters and the number of those elected.
Elections 2022: for the first time we vote in the fall
First, the 2022 general election will be the first to be held in the autumn in the history of the Italian Republic. The only precedent dates back to 16 November 1919, but at the time there was still the King and the right to vote was recognized only to men (the first vote by universal suffrage was that of 2 June 1946). Since then it has always avoided calling the Italians to the polls in the autumn to avoid seaside election campaigns and repercussions on the budget package.
Elections September 25: 18-year-olds also vote for the Senate
The second, far more substantial, change concerns the so-called "active electorate". Until last year, the Constitution provided for different ages to vote for the representatives of the two Chambers: all adults were called to elect the deputies, while the choice of six senators was reserved for those who were at least 25 years old. There constitutional reform of 2021 however, he leveled this asymmetry, establishing that it is enough to have accomplished 18 years to also participate in the election of the Senate. Numbers in hand, thanks to this innovation, the voters of Palazzo Madama will be 3,8 million more than they would have been with the previous rules.
Political elections 25 September: the cut of parliamentarians
Thus we come to the third novelty of the political elections 2022, by far the most important. This time we are talking about "passive electorate", i.e. citizens who can aspire to be elected. Last year's constitutional law drastically changed this audience, by cutting the number of MPs by over a third: after 25 September, the regulatory change will produce concrete consequences for the first time, reducing the deputies from 630 to 400 e the senators from 315 to 200.
How many candidates are there?
La electoral law in force, the Rosatellum, provides for a mixed majority and proportional electoral system, for which it is necessary to distinguish between single-member and multi-member constituencies:
- to the Chamber 1.310 candidates present themselves for single-member constituencies and 2.788 for multi-member constituencies;
- in the Senatehowever, there are 693 candidates for single-member constituencies and 1.418 for multi-member constituencies.
With regard to the foreign constituencyfinally, there are 95 candidates for the Chamber and 41 for the Senate, compared to 12 places available in Montecitorio and 6 in Palazzo Madama.
How many symbols are allowed?
There are 75 symbols admitted by the Ministry of the Interior among those deposited by parties or organized political groups that have presented lists of candidates. To the 70 initially admitted, another 5 were added among the 14 symbols for which modifications had been requested last August 16th.
