Italy’s top court has rejected a call for a referendum on the electoral law, which would seek to reverse changes enacted under Silvio Berlusconi. It gave no immediate explanation for rejecting the petition, which had attracted more than double the signatures needed for a plebiscite. Judges have 20 days to explain why they are not allowing the vote on a law which is deeply unpopular. The law obliges voters to pick parties rather than individual candidates.
All parties apparently accept that the current law has to be changed but do not agree on how to do it. Prime Minister Mario Monti, who heads a technocratic government and is expected to rule until the general election next spring, has said it is up to parliament, not his ministers, to make changes.
The constitutional court rejected both a proposal to dump the legislation, which is nicknamed the porcellum or “pigsty law”, or to abolish only parts of it.
Full Article: BBC News – Court rules out referendum on Italy election law.