ROME, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Italians on Monday rejected sweeping constitutional changes drawn up by the previous center-right government led by Silvio Berlusconi.
Final results showed that 61.7 percent of voters were against the proposed constitutional changes, which would boost the powers of the prime minister and grant greater autonomy for Italy's 20 regions.
The "no" vote won in all regions except the northern center-right strongholds of Lombardy and Veneto.
Turnout in the two-day referendum was unexpectedly high at 53.6 percent, with more people voting in the north than in the south.
New Prime Minister Romano Prodi and his nine-party coalition had urged Italians to throw out the amendments one-sidedly approved by Berlusconi's government in November 2005.
Since the amendments did not gain the two-thirds support in parliament required for bringing about the constitutional changes, they could not be implemented unless Italians approved them in a referendum.
After the referendum, Prodi expressed his satisfaction, stressing that cross-party consensus was required for such important reforms.
"It is now our duty to open dialogue with all political parties and discuss together the adjustments that should be made to the Constitution," he said.
"Constitutional reforms must only be carried out with the broadest agreement possible and not rammed through by one side," he added.
The reforms would have devolved greater powers to Italy's 20 regions in the areas of health, education and policing, a move critics said would mean better services for richer northern regions to the detriment of the poorer south.
They would also have increased the powers of the premier, making him a directly elected figure with the right to hire and fire ministers, propose the dissolution of parliament, and call elections.
Under the present system, only parliament can dismiss a minister via a no-confidence vote, while it is up to the president to dissolve parliament and call elections.
The reforms would have reformed parliament by transforming the Senate into a federal rather than a national legislative body and ended the need for both chambers to approve legislation.
The number of parliamentarians would also have been cut, from 630 to a maximum of 521 in the House and from 315 to 252 in the Senate.
The Constitutional Court would have been reshaped so that regional interests were represented.
Berlusconi pushed the constitutional changes through parliament in a flurry of activity during his last months in power, saying they would end Italy's half century of revolving-door government.
But the Prodi government was staunchly opposed to the overhaul, arguing that Italy's underdeveloped southern regions would be penalized by the devolution of power.
It also said the other proposed measures would create a too powerful premiership, weaken parliament and risk lengthening legislative procedures by creating conflicts between the two chambers of parliament.
The amendments were the key condition set by the small federalist Northern League for maintaining its support for Berlusconi's government and had appealed to many voters in the more affluent northern regions.
Political analysts said the referendum results could deal another blow to Berlusconi, whose future as opposition leader could now be in doubt after he narrowly lost April's elections to the center left. Enditem
