Country: Italy Official Name: Italian Republic Election Type: Parliamentary Date: April 9, 2006 Source for election date

At stake in this election:

• 315 seats in the Senate (Senato della Repubblica)
• 630 seats in the Chamber of Deputies (Camera dei Deputati)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Carlo Azeglio CIAMPI
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Silvio BERLUSCON
• Assembly: Italy has a bicameral Parliament (Parlamento) consisting of the Senate (Senato della Repubblica) with 322 seats and the Chamber of Deputies (Camera dei Deputati) with 630 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by parliament to serve a 7-year term.
• In the Senate (Senato della Repubblica), 315 members are elected through a party-list proportional representation system to serve 5-year terms, 5 members are elected by the President and 2 members are filled ex officio. In the Chamber of Deputies (Camera dei Deputati) 630 members are elected through a party-list proportional representation system to serve 5-year terms.**

** Party coalitions need to obtain at least 10% of the valid votes to gain seats in the Chamber. Parties running independent of any coalitions must obtain 4% of the valid votes.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Coalition: House of Freedoms / Casa delle Liberta'*
  Leader: Silvio BERLUSCONI
  Seats won in last Senate election: 177
  Seats won in last Chamber of Deputies election: 368
• Party: The Union / L'Unione**
  Leader: Romano PRODI
  Seats won in last Senate election: 125
  Seats won in last Chamber of Deputies election: 242

* The House of Freedoms Coalition includes Go Italy (Forza Italia), the National Alliance (Alleanza Nazionale), the Northern League (Lega Nord), the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC), the Socialist Party – new PSI (Nuovo PSI), the Italian Republican Party, the Liberal Reformers, the Christian Democracy for the Autonomies, plus several far right groups.
** The Union regroups many of the parties that composed the Olive Tree coalition of centre-left parties in the 1996 and 2001 general elections. Currently, the Union includes Democrats of the Left (Democratici di Sinistra), Daisy-Democracy is Freedom (Margherita-Democrazia è Libertà), the Communist Refoundation Party (Partito della Rifondazione Comunista), Federation of the Greens (Federazione dei Verdi), Party of Italian Communists (Partito dei Comunisti Italiani), Italian Democratic Socialists (Socialisti Democratici Italiani), Italian Radicals (Radicali Italiani), Italy of Values (Italia dei Valori), Popular-UDEUR (Popolari-UDEUR), The Socialists (I Socialisti), and the Pensioners' Party (Partito dei Pensionati).

Last Parliamentary election:

• The last elections for both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies were held on May 13, 2001.

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 58,103,033 (July 2005 est.)
• Registered Voters: 50,000,000 (March 2006 est.; this number includes about 46,500,000 domestic voters and 3,500,000 Italians living abroad.)

Last Updated on 02/09/2006

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