Electoral Panorama / Panorama Electoral

Final results of Italy's 2006 parliamentary elections in the country proper are now available on Elections to the Italian Parliament. The definitive numbers show little change with respect to earlier provisional figures, but include previously unavailable electorate and voter turnout statistics.

I must emphasize that since Italian expatriates were granted separate representation in both houses of the Italian Parliament, they were moved to a separate electoral roll as well. For that reason, the total number of electors in 2006 is smaller than in 2001, while at the same time voter turnout appeared to increase with respect to the preceding election. In reality, this increase was largely brought about by the removal of expatriate voters to a separate roll: consequently, the low levels of participation among Italians residing abroad no longer had the effect of reducing the overall turnout rate, as they had done in previous elections.