Italian Elections

Italy go to the polls this week. Whilst overseas elections wouldn't usually interest me that much, this one doe as I voted in it. I don't know why, but my father is Italian and since I turned 18 I have had ballots mailed to me for federal elections and referendums.


The first thing that hits you is how difficult it is to vote if you don't know Italian. In Australia, when you vote, you can request instructions in any number of languages. In the Italian elections, despite voting in the Australasian and aftican block, all instructions are in Italian. Occasionally I will receive mail from a candidate with voting instructions in English and Italian and can work it out. The voting system is horrible as well. In Australia, with compulsory voting, they do all they can to make voting simple - all you do is number a box. In the Italian elections there is no preferential voting and you have to write the surname of the guy in the party you are voting for on the ballot paper, I haven't worked out if you are only voting for one guy or voting for a party and the winning candidate in that party gets the vote.


In any case, I voted with to stick with Monte, if for no other reason that he has kept to his word in calling an election after the budget and I feel he is making the hard choices for Italy that it needs in this time of crisis. I have never voted Berlusconi and never will. It would be interested to see the results somewhere once this election is finished but finding such information is very difficult