DEAD OR MISSING IN ELECTORAL ROLLS

Advocates of the referendum scheduled for May 21 protested in front of

the seat of the government and demanded that a decree be issued to update electoral rolls.

The fact that thousands of dead may be registered to vote makes it

difficult to reach the quorum of 50% plus one required for the outcome of the referendum to be binding from a constitutional viewpoint.

Despite the protest, Prime Minister Amato said he would not issue such a

decree. He argued that to do so two weeks before the referendum could lead to allegations that he was trying to affect the referendum result.

This pleased the small parties who do not want the referendum to pass.

Many small parties fear they would be swept away in a majority based voting system.

Some members of Parliament said that the vote might even be unconstitutional if the electoral rolls were not valid.

Opposition spokesmen underlined that the majority had neglected over the

past year to pass a bill providing for the revision of the electoral rolls andthat to do so now would be an abuse.

Silvio Berlusconi, center-right leader, pointed out that Italy already has laws providing for a regular update of electoral rolls, suggesting that the government had not wanted to enforce them.

The Christian Democratic Union leader Rocco Buttiglione went as far as to say that such a decree "would be an institutional coup d'etat".

Caianiello, former head of the Constitutional Court said that the European Court of Justice could sue Italy for a vote that might be distorted by a long list of dead people.

Meanwhile opponents of the electoral reform as well as those in favour of a return to the proportional representation focus the campaign on encouraging Italians to abstain from voting rather than voting against the referendum and Datamedia forecast that the quorum would fail by 2%.

The referendum on the electoral reform will take place together with six others on a wide range of social and legal issues