The vote of Italians abroad is a theme that often returns to the centre of political debate, especially in the vicinity of the electoral returns. The last opportunity of discussion opened during the examination of the Law of Budget, when the deputy of Brothers of Italy elected abroad Andrea Di Giuseppe presented an agenda on the topic. A question involving millions of Italian citizens enrolled in the Aire to exercise their right to vote anywhere in the world.
The current system, introduced in 2001, allows Italians resident abroad to express their vote by postal mail. A mechanism which over time has expanded the possibilities of participation, but at the same time has also shown limits. Errors in the delivery of electoral ballots, postal delays and alleged irregularities in the voting and scrutiny phases have fueled doubts and controversies on each electoral appointment.
The agenda of Di Giuseppe commits the Government to replace the vote by post with a vote exclusively in the presence of poll seats established only in the Consulates abroad.
A hypothesis that has aroused the perplexity of oppositions, and the Democratic Party in particular, concerned about the possible consequences on the actual exercise of the right of vote by Italians abroad and the risk of a reduction of participation, especially in view of the next electoral appointment of the referendum on justice. Christian Di Sanzo, MP of the Democratic Party elected in North and Central America recalled the danger that this proposal would represent for North America.
“ Such a proposal is likely to drastically reduce turnout in elections. Just look at Europe, where the postal vote records a turnout around 25% for the political elections, while for the elections at the Consulates – the method applied for the European elections, which is possible only in Europe – comes down to 7%”, said Christian Di Sanzo.
“In North America, with huge distances between cities, turnout would be even lower: For example, the many Italians living in Seattle should take a two-hour flight to the Consulate of San Francisco – and I could make dozens of examples of great Italian communities living at hours of plane distance from a Consulate”, is the reasoning of Di Sanzo. “But there are concrete solutions to ensure the safety of voting abroad without penalising citizens like, for example, introducing barcodes to quickly verify that the plico corresponds to a registered voter, printing cards in Italy so as to make them unalterable. It is enough to have the will to adopt serious technical solutions, instead of resorting to easy measures which in fact prevent the right to vote. Asking to go to the Consulate for the vote cannot be considered a viable solution. It is suspected that this proposal a few weeks after the constitutional referendum on justice is aimed only at reducing the vote of Italians abroad,” said Di Sanzo.
So, the debate remains open and revolves around a central issue: guarantee the right to vote for all Italians abroad.
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