ROME, May 30 (Xinhua) -- A bill to create a new German-style electoral law is to be discussed by a committee in Italy's Lower House of parliament, Ansa news agency reported Tuesday.
The Democratic Party (PD), Five Star Movement (M5S), and Forza Italia (FI) -- Italy's three leading political parties -- have agreed on a German-style electoral system.
This could pave the way for a new general election to replace the interim government of center-left Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.
Right now, Italy has two different voting systems for each of the houses of parliament -- a first-past-the-post system for the 630-seat Chamber of Deputies, and proportional representation for the 315-member Senate.
Elections held under the current system can lead to political gridlock by resulting in different outcomes in the two chambers, which have equal powers.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who has the power to dissolve parliament, has said no vote will be held until voting procedures for both houses are made homogeneous.
The virtue of the German system is that it combines the "winner-takes-all" model with the proportional representation system.
In Germany, each voter casts two ballots -- the first for their district candidate, the second for the party they support.
Half of Germany's 598-seat Bundestag or Lower House of Parliament is elected based on a simple majority of voters' first votes.
The other half of the Bundestag is allocated based on the nationwide percentage of voters' second votes.
Only parties that get at least 5 percent of the second votes can get seats in the Bundestag.
The German system would work for Italy's three leading parties, the ruling center-left PD, the center-right FI party led by former prime minister and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, and comedian Beppe Grillo's populist, Eurosceptic M5S.
However, it would penalize Italy's plethora of smaller parties from left to right, which are polling below 5 percent and which will have to forge coalitions in order to make it past that threshold.
According to a survey late last week by pollster Ipsos, M5S polled at 30.5 percent, closely followed by the center-left PD led by former prime minister Matteo Renzi at 30.4 percent.
Berlusconi's FI stood at 13.2 percent, according to the Ipsos data.
It remains to be seen whether the agreement between the three parties will last long enough for a German-style electoral law reform to be approved by parliament.
