The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-04-07
FAKE Fascist
!. ELECTION is HELD
THRUOUT ITALY
Mussolini's Democratic
Dictatorship at Work!

ROME, April 6.-The Italian oen-
eral election that was held today for
new chamber of deputies may look
IKE a great joke to the, average
American, but not so to Premier
Mussolini and his fascist followers.
First Of all, the new Italian cleo
toral law was devised to allow the
fascists to remain in power whether
the country wanted it or not and in
order to achieve this extraordinary
result, the law provides that any
party polling rs per cent, or one
fourth of the votes actually cast,
will elect two-thirds of the deputies
composing the Italian chamber of
deputies, or 356, out Of total of
535.
In practice the law works this way:
The country is divided into fifteen
electoral districts, and the tickets are
divided into two main categories,
namely, national, or majority, tickets,
and districtual, or minority, tickets.
The former are the tickets which on
polling % per cent Of the votes will
elect a majority of 356 deputies; the
second are only after the whole or
part of the 179 remaining seats, and
which the law allots to the minority,
which may or may not be opposition.
Sewing II Up.
A national or majority ticket must
be presented in all the fifteen consti-
tuencies or electoral districts; the
minority tickets must be presented
in at least two districts. In each dis
trict the majority tickets will carry
a number of candidates equal to two
thirds of the deputies the district
elects, owing to its population. The
minority or districtual tickets must
have no more than one-third of the
candidates. For example: Suppose
a district elects 80 deputies. Then the
majority tickets will carry 20 names
and the minority tickets 10. Further
more, while the votes of majority
tickets are counted nationally" the
votes of the minority tickets are
counted only in relation to the DIS
tricts in order to allow each district
to have one-third Of its deputies in
the chamber. To exemplify: A ma
jority ticket may or may not get %
per cent of the votes in one, two,
three or more districts; but if the
total of the votes polled by the same
ticket in all the districts is equal to
% per cent or more of the votes
cast, it elects two-thirds of deputies
in "all'' the districts. A minority
ticket will elect its one-third Of
deputies, regardless of the number
of votes it receives.
Each Has Emblem.
Naturally, there can be more than
one majority ticket and many minor
ity tickets. But only the majority
ticket polling the largest number of
votes above the rs per cent required
by the law, elects $50 candidates,
while the rest of the majority and
minority tickets will divide among
themselves the seats allotted to the
minority in proportion to the votes
which each ticket receives.
The majority tickets are each dis
tinguished by a party emblem and so
are the minority tickets. The emblem
is the same for all the districts in
which the ticket is presented.
Should no majority ticket secure
the required 25 per cent of the
votes cast, then the electoral pro-
portional system, formerly in use,
comes into play and each ticket,
whether majority or minority, elects
the number of deputies to which it
is entitled in proportion to the votes
polled.
All the controversies arising out
of the. new electoral law will be set
tied by the court of appeal of Rome,
which will also make the final count