Without collecting digital signatures for elections, smaller parties will be penalized

However, after the constitutional referendum, the plurinominal constituencies in the Chamber dropped to 49; so to appear throughout Italy, at least 73,500 signatures would be needed. However, with the elections more than four months ahead of the normal term of the legislature, the number of signatures required comes halved. Therefore, at least 750 are needed instead of 1500 for each plurinominal college. In total, to stand for the general elections of 25 September 2022, throughout Italy, parties and coalitions are expected to collect at least 36,750 signatures for the Chamber and 19,500 for the Senate.

Also, to be valid, the signatures must be hand-picked and authenticated at the time of signature by a public official present on site, or mayors, local administrators or municipal officials, notaries or lawyers, and the signatures must be of voters or electricians registered in the electoral lists of the municipalities that are part of the plurinominal college in question. Basically, you cannot sign up for a list outside your home.

These rules concern only some parties. Thanks to the Elections decree approved in May, some rules have been introduced that limit the obligation to collect signatures for “The first elections of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic following the date of entry into force of the law” that is, those of 25 September. In particular, thearticle 6-bis clarifies that they can submit applications without collecting signatures “political parties or groups formed in parliamentary group in at least one of the two chambers as of December 31, 2021 “. They fall into this case Brothers of Italy, Lega, Forza Italia, PD, 5 Star Movement, Free and Equal, Italia Viva And Courage Italy.

Furthermore, the exemption has also been extended to parties “Who have presented candidacies with their own mark in the last elections of the Chamber of Deputies or in the last elections of the members of the European parliament due to Italy in at least two thirds of the constituencies and who have obtained at least one seat assigned proportionally “ how + Europe-Democratic Center. Or to those who “Have contributed to the determination of the national electoral figure of the coalition having obtained, on the national level, a number of valid votes more than 1 per cent of the total“ how We with Italy by Maurizio Lupi.

All parties, even with representatives in parliament, who do not have the characteristics presented, will be obliged to collect signatures. This is the group led by Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, Together for the future, There is an alternativewhich brings together other splinters of the 5 Star Movement, Italexit by Gianluigi Paragone, Power to the People, European Greens, Italy againthe Communist Party by Marco Rizzo e Reconquer Italy. While Action by Carlo Calenda will not have to collect signatures thanks to the alliance with + Europe.