ITALIAN AND IRISH POLITICS

ITALIAN ELECTORAL

SYSTEMThe new electoral system, approved on December 14 2005, is based on

proportional representation with a series of thresholds to encourage parties to form coalitions.

Both for the lower and higher house of the Parliament, Italy is divided in a certain number of constituencies, in which seats will be distributed according to the share of votes received by a party. Available seats are assigned to these constituencies proportionally to their population. In all cases, the lists of party candidates is given beforehand, and citizens cannot state a preference for any given candidate: if a list wins 10 seats, its first ten candidates will be elected.

The law officially recognizes coalitions of parties: to be part of a coalition, a party must sign its official program and indicate a candidate to prime-ministership

IRISH ELECTORAL

SYSTEM

The Republic of Ireland elects on national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature. The president is elected for a seven year term by Irish citizens resident in the Republic. Oireachtas Éireann (the national parliament) has two chambers. Dáil Éireann (the house of representatives or lower house) has 166 members, elected for a term of up to five years by the single transferable vote system in multi-seat constituencies. Seanad Éireann (the Senate or upper house) has 60 members. Governments and elections have been dominated by two main parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The electoral system provides for a form of proportional representation, with the consequence that coalition government has become the norm in recent decades

ITALIAN MAIN PARTIESCasa delle Libertà, or House of the Liberties in English, is an Italian center-right party allianceled by national media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi.

Forza Italia (Forward Italy, FI) [1] is an Italian political party.It is headed by Silvio Berlusconi,twice Prime Minister of Italy and it is a personality-driven christian-democratic, liberal andconservative party, founded in December 1993 and winning the elections already in March 1994.It is currently the main member of the House of Freedoms coalition, and is considered to be verydifferent from other Italian political parties. Forza Italia has surpassed 30% of votes, butpresently its base of support consists of about one-quarter of the electorate.

The Union (Italian: L'Unione) is an Italian centre-left political party coalition. It is led byRomano Prodi, the current (due to 2006 elections) prime minister of Italy and former presidentof the European Commission.

The Democrats of the Left (Democratici di Sinistra, DS) is the main Italian left-wing politicalparty, part of the Olive Tree electoral coalition. Its leaders are Piero Fassino, national secretary,and Massimo D'Alema, president.

Democracy is Freedom – Daisy (Democrazia è Libertà – La Margherita, DL) is a centrist politicalparty in Italy.The party president and leader is Francesco Rutelli, former Mayor of Rome andformer centre-left candidate for Prime Minister at the 2001 General Elections.

IRISH PARTIESFianna Fáil - The Republican Party is the largest political party in the State. Fianna Fáil is a constitutional republican party and economically can be described as centrist. The party has evolved economically from favouring a statist protectionist model to acceptance of the mixed economy of today. Their policies are sometimes described as right-wing and neo-liberal, typically by those on the left-wing of the political spectrum. From the 1930s until the late 1980s it was the only party capable of winning an overall majority. In the European Parliament Fianna Fáil is part of the Union for a Europe of Nations group

Fine Gael (United Ireland) is the second largest political party in Ireland in terms of the popular vote, Dáil and council representation and the largest Irish party in the European Parliament. It is a member of the European People's Party, and is a centrist party with a strong Christian Democratic outlook. It is strongly pro-European and is opposed to militant republicanism.

The Progressive Democrats is a free market liberal party founded in 1985, mainly by members of Fianna Fáil. It is a member of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR). The current party leader is Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell

ITALIAN ELECTION 2006

In the Italian general election, 2006 for the renewal of the two Chambers of the Parliament of Italy held on April 9 and April 10, 2006 the

incumbent prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the center-right House of Freedoms, was narrowly defeated by Romano Prodi, leader of

the center-left The Union.

Preliminary results showed The Union leading the House of Freedoms in the Chamber of Deputies, with 340 seats to 277, thanks to obtaining a majority bonus (actual votes were distributed 49.81% to 49.74%). The

House of Freedoms had secured a slight majority of Senate seats elected within Italy (155 seats to 154), but The Union won 4 of the 6 seats allocated to voters outside Italy, giving them control of both

chambers. [13] On April 19, Italy's court of last resort (Corte di Cassazione) ruled that Prodi had indeed won the election, winning

control of the Chamber of Deputies by only 24,755 votes out of more than 38 million votes cast, and winning 158 seats in the Senate to 156

for Berlusconi's coalition.

IRISH ELECTION 2007The Irish general election of 2002 was held on Friday 17 May 2002 justover three weeks after the dissolution of the 28th Dáil on Thursday 25April by President Mary McAleese, at the request of the Taoiseach,Bertie Ahern. The newly elected members of the 29th Dáil assembled onThursday June 6, 2002.The general election took place in 42 parliamentary constituenciesthroughout the Republic of Ireland for 166 seats in the lower house ofparliament, Dáil Éireann.The election was considered a success for Fianna Fáil, with the partycoming within a handful of seats from achieving an overall majority. Themeltdown in Fine Gael support, which saw the main opposition partydrop from 54 to 31 seats, and lose all but three seats in Dublin. Thefailure of the Labour Party, contrary to all expectations, to increase itsseat total.

ITALIAN GOVERNMENTIn Italy, the President of the Council of

Ministers (Italian: Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri) is the country's prime minister or head of government, and occupies the fourth-most important state office. The Presidency of the Council is a constitutional office, established by the Italian constitution by articles 92, 93, 94, 95, and 96. The President of the Council is appointed by the President of the Italian Republic, the head of state. The current prime minister of Italy is Romano Prodi, former President of the European Commission, and leader of the center-left coalition, The Union

IRISH GOVERNMENTThe Government (Irish: Rialtas) is the cabinet that

exercises executive authority in the Republic of Ireland. The Government is headed by a prime minister called the Taoiseach, and a deputy prime minister called the Tánaiste. The Taoiseach is appointed by the President after being designated by Dáil Éireann (the lower house of parliament). The President then appoints the remaining Ministers of the Government after they have been chosen by the Taoiseach and approved by the Dáil. The Government must enjoy the confidence of the Dáil if it is to remain in office.