An appeal against the Presidency of the Council of Ministers challenging the constitutionality of the new electoral law was filed this morning with the Cagliari Court.
The appeal, signed by lawyers Giovanni Dore, Carlo Augusto Melis, and Alessandro Tedde, has garnered broad support among Sardinian civil society, involving leading figures from the academic, legal, institutional, political, and cultural worlds.
The appellants include constitutional lawyers Pietro Ciarlo, Gianmario Demuro, and Andrea Deffenu; former regional president Federico Palomba; Gian Mario Selis (former president of the Regional Council); Maria Del Zompo, former rector of the University of Cagliari; and academics and jurists Francesco Sitzia, Andrea Pubusa, and Carlo Dore Jr. Numerous representatives of civil society also joined the petition.
The initiative launched in Cagliari is part of a broader national effort , coordinated with the network of lawyers led by Roberto Zaccaria, Pietro Adami, Federico Grosso, and Maria Agostina Cabiddu. The network will file similar appeals before the courts of the other 25 Italian Courts of Appeal, sparking a nationwide initiative aimed at submitting questions of the legitimacy of the new electoral law to the Constitutional Court.
The legal action stems from the belief that the new electoral rules "serious conflict with the fundamental principles of the Constitution, particularly with respect to equality of the vote, the freedom of voters to choose their representatives, political pluralism, and the balance of the parliamentary form of government," the proponents explain.
There are eight specific reasons for the appeal. Regarding the majority bonus, the law awards a bonus of 70 deputies and 35 senators to the coalition that reaches the required threshold of 42% of the vote. According to the plaintiffs, this mechanism risks creating an excessive disproportion between electoral consensus and parliamentary seats, sacrificing the principle of equality of the vote. The seats from the majority bonus are awarded to candidates pre-selected by the parties, without the possibility for voters to express preferences. This reduces the number of parliamentarians elected through the ordinary preference system, curtailing citizens' right to choose their representatives.
