Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Italy Election- Overseas Voters, 3.5 Million To Decide ??
The ANNOTICO Report
THREE and ONE-HALF (3.5) Million new voters, many of whom have never set foot in Italy and barely speak Italian, could decide the tight race between Premier Silvio Berlusconi and challenger Romano Prodi.
In 2001, four huge electoral districts to represent Italians who live overseas were created. The geography of it all is daunting. One district represents Italians in Africa, Asia, Oceania and Antarctica. Another envelops all of Europe. A third covers North and Central America, and the fourth South America.
Eighteen lawmakers will be chosen to represent this new constituency, 12 in the Chamber of Deputies and six in the Senate.
While Italian politics is far more complex than in the US, the Overseas Italians add several wrinkles.
Several candidates in the United States are running as independents - something practically unheard of in Italy, where politics colors everything from sports to culture.
The Pundits are trying to determine whether Overseas Italian Voters will be beholden to conservative Belusconi, who pushed the Legislation in 2001 for their right to vote, and have been long wooed by Mirko Tremaglia, the Minister for Italians in the World, who lobbied for decades for that law, and is a strong Berlusconi supporter.
Or whether the Overseas Italians are interested in Issues such as Cutting Deficits to maintain EU Membership, cutting a bloated Bureaucracy, which might negatively affect their own contacts with the government, cutting over generous and early Pensions, etc, or merely will be a reflection of their own national ideological inclination.
One wonders even further, whether there is any way an Overseas Italian Vote can be "informed" rather than "knee jerk", BUT it certainly couldn't be worse than the American system. One should be required to take a Voters License Test, to "cull out" those who are blind men in a dark room, when it comes to knowing the issues and candidates, at least as well as they know the stats of their favorite sports figure.
Driving, and Voting are among many Rights that should have Responsibilities attached.
OVERSEAS VOTERS MAY DECIDE ITALY ELECTION
Seattle Post-Intelligencier
By
Frances D'Emilio
Associated Press Writer &!
nbsp;
Tuesday, March 21,
2006
ROME -- Millions of new voters, many of whom have never set foot in Italy and barely speak Italian, could decide the tight race between Premier Silvio Berlusconi and challenger Romano Prodi.
Next month's ballot marks the first time citizens who live abroad will have the right to vote by mail in an election for the Italian parliament. They will be benefiting from a 2001 law sponsored by Berlusconi's conservative government soon after it came to power.
The law created four huge electoral districts to represent Italians who live overseas. Eighteen lawmakers will be chosen to represent this new constituency, 12 in the Chamber of Deputies and six in the Senate.
With Berlusconi a few points behind Prodi in opinion polls and the gap virtually unchanged for weeks, politicians of all stripes have been crisscrossing continents and flying across oceans in a scramble to win over the 3.5 million voters abroad. Their political leanings - and potential turnout - remain a big question.
Some 47 million citizens who live in Italy are eligible to vote in the April 9-10 balloting.
Several candidates in the United States are running as independents - something practically unheard of in Italy, where politics colors everything from sports to culture. They could be decisive if the race turns out so close that Parliament must hold a vote of confidence to determine who will lead Italy.
The seats in the Senate, where the race is expected to be the tightest, are particularly coveted.
"Six senators could make a big difference," said Eugenio Marino, who is in charge of electoral coordination for Prodi's Unione coalition. "The overseas vote has taken on a certain tension."
Mirko Tremaglia, the minister for Italians in the World, has spent much of the past weeks working the crowds in South America. The right-wing politician lobbied for decades to give Italian citizens the right to vote from abroad and have representation in Parliament.
"You will have the real possibility of changing Italian politics," Tremaglia told a rally Sunday in Montevideo, Uruguay, his last stop on a tour that included Venezuela, Peru, Brazil and Argentina.
Politicians particularly focused on Argentina, home to hundreds of thousands of Italians. Among those who campaigned there was Antonio Di Pietro, a lawmaker and former Milan anti-corruption prosecutor who is backing Prodi's coalition.
Some candidates found the geography of it all daunting. One district represents Italians in Africa, Asia, Oceania and Antarctica. Another envelops all of Europe.
Angela Della Costanza Turner, a 37-year-old honorary consul in Atlanta and daughter-in-law of U.S. media magnate Ted Turner, was running in the North and Central America district.
"I flew from Costa Rica yesterday, and I have people (campaigning) for me in Nicaragua," said Turner, vying for a Chamber seat for Berlusconi's party.
South America was a whole other district.
"My district goes from Venezuela to Tiera del Fuego" in the southern tip of the continent, said Diego Tomassini, a Berlusconi supporter and business consultant for Italian companies in Sao Paulo, Brazil. "I'm planning to be in eight, nine countries in 20 days. It's quite impossible."
Language was complicating his campaign. Italian citizenship can be obtained in a number of ways, including having Italian parents or grandparents.
"They don't speak Italian any more. A lot of people are second or third generation" Italians, Tomassini, said of his prospective constituents.
In Italy, the campaign centers around the country's anemic economy. But overseas voters are mostly worried about streamlining the bureaucracy they face in dealings with Italy, Turner said.
Politicians in Rome woke up late to the potential of the overseas vote, said Renato Turano, a moderate who is running on Prodi's slate for a North American seat.
"All of a sudden there is quite a bit of interest," said Renato Turano, the head of a baking company near Chicago who came to the United States when he was 15.
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