Meloni Defends Return of Preferential Voting, Accuses Left of Political Inconsistency.

Rome:

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has defended the centre-right government’s decision to reintroduce preferential voting in parliamentary elections, describing the move as a significant change after decades without the system.

In a statement, Meloni said preferential voting had been absent from parliamentary elections since 1993, meaning Italian voters had been without the option for nearly 35 years. She said the centre-right had now chosen to bring the system back following a proposal put forward by her party, Fratelli d’Italia.

Meloni also criticised opposition parties on the left that have argued that the measure does not go far enough. According to the Prime Minister, such criticism lacks credibility because, she claimed, the same political forces had opposed the reintroduction of preferential voting for decades and had voted against it as recently as a month ago.

“The difference is not between those who want more preferences and those who want fewer,” Meloni argued. “It is between those who have kept them in the law and those who have not.”

The debate over preferential voting is part of Italy’s broader discussion on electoral reform and how voters should be able to influence the selection of individual parliamentary candidates.

Meloni presented the centre-right’s initiative as a step toward restoring a voting mechanism that she said had been missing from Italian parliamentary elections for decades, while challenging the opposition to explain its position on the issue.

The development is likely to fuel further political debate in Italy over electoral rules, voter choice and the role of political parties in selecting parliamentary representatives.