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All 556 seats to the Constituent Assembly of Italy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 89.1% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Legislative election results map. Light Blue denotes provinces with a Christian Democratic plurality, Red denotes those with a Communist plurality, Salmon denotes those with a Socialist plurality. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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General elections were held in Italy on Sunday, 2 June 1946. [1] They were the first after World War II and elected 556 deputies to the Constituent Assembly. Theoretically, a total of 573 deputies were to be elected, but the election did not take place in the Julian March and in South Tyrol, which were under military occupation by the United Nations.
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km2 (116,350 sq mi) and has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous EU member state and the most populous country in Southern Europe.
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.
The Italian Constituent Assembly was a parliamentary chamber which existed in Italy from 25 June 1946 until 31 January 1948. It had the task to write a constitution for the Italian Republic, which had replaced the Kingdom of Italy after the Italian civil war.
For the first time, Italian women were allowed to vote in a national election. Electors had two votes: one to elect the representatives and one to choose the institutional form of the state.
To emphasise the restoration of democracy after the fascist era, a pure party-list proportional representation was chosen. Italian provinces were united in 31 constituencies, each electing a group of candidates. [2] At constituency level, seats were divided between open lists using the largest remainder method with the Imperiali quota. Remaining votes and seats were transferred at national level, where special closed lists of national leaders received the last seats using the Hare quota.
Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems emphasizing proportional representation (PR) in elections in which multiple candidates are elected through allocations to an electoral list. They can also be used as part of mixed additional member systems.
Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a party's candidates are elected. This as opposed to closed list, which allows only active members, party officials, or consultants to determine the order of its candidates and gives the general voter no influence at all on the position of the candidates placed on the party list. Additionally, an open list system allows voters to select individuals rather than parties. Different systems give voter different amounts of influence. Voter's choice is usually called preference vote.
The largest remainder method is one way of allocating seats proportionally for representative assemblies with party list voting systems. It contrasts with various divisor methods.
At the end of World War II, Italy was governed under transitional laws as a result of agreements between the National Liberation Committee (CLN) and the royal Lieutenant General of the Realm Humbert II. As no democratic elections had taken place for more than 20 years, legislative power was given to the government but, after the first election, the Italian Council of Ministers would have to receive a vote of confidence by the new Constituent Assembly.
The National Liberation Committee was a political umbrella organization and the main representative of the Italian resistance movement fighting against the German occupation of Italy in the aftermath of the armistice of Cassibile. It was a multi-party entity, whose members were united by their anti-fascism.
The Italian word luogotenente is an etymological parallel to lieutenant, deriving from the Latin locum tenens "holding a place", i.e. someone who fills a position instead of another, as a substitute, deputy, et cetera.
Umberto II was the last King of Italy. He reigned for 34 days, from 9 May 1946 to 12 June 1946, although he had been de facto head of state since 1944, and was nicknamed the May King.
The three main contestants were Christian Democracy and the Italian Socialist Party, which had both received popular support before the fascist era, and the Italian Communist Party, which had strengthened itself with the armed struggle against Nazism and fascism during the war. The Italian Liberal Party, heir of the pre-fascist and conservative ruling class, proposed an alliance called National Democratic Union. Monarchists groups created the National Bloc of Freedom, while the social liberal Action Party and Labour Democratic Party hoped to maximize the positive image of the governments that they ruled in the National Liberation Committee.
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic political party in Italy.
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy. Founded in Genoa in 1892, the PSI dominated the Italian left until after World War II, when it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party. The Socialists came to special prominence in the 1980s, when their leader Bettino Craxi, who had severed the residual ties with the Soviet Union and re-branded the party as liberal-socialist, served as Prime Minister (1983–1987). The PSI was disbanded in 1994 as a result of the Tangentopoli scandals. Prior to World War I, future dictator Benito Mussolini was a member of the PSI.
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.
Party | Ideology | Leader | |
---|---|---|---|
Christian Democracy (DC) | Christian democracy, Popularism | Alcide De Gasperi | |
Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity (PSIUP) | Socialism, Democratic socialism | Pietro Nenni | |
Italian Communist Party (PCI) | Communism, Marxism-Leninism | Palmiro Togliatti | |
National Democratic Union (UDN) | Liberalism, Conservatism | Manlio Brosio | |
Common Man's Front (UQ) | Populism, Conservatism | Guglielmo Giannini | |
Italian Republican Party (PRI) | Republicanism, Social liberalism | Randolfo Pacciardi | |
National Bloc of Freedom (BNL) | Conservatism, Monarchism | Alfredo Covelli | |
Action Party (PdA) | Republicanism, Liberal socialism | Ugo La Malfa |
The election gave a large majority to the government formed by the three leaders of the CLN, which were briefly joined by the Republican Party after the exile of Humbert II. The alliance lasted for a year.
Party | Votes | % | Seats | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Christian Democracy | 8,101,004 | 35.21 | 207 | ||
Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity | 4,758,129 | 20.68 | 115 | ||
Italian Communist Party | 4,356,686 | 18.93 | 104 | ||
National Democratic Union [lower-alpha 1] | 1,560,638 | 6.78 | 41 | ||
Common Man's Front | 1,211,956 | 5.27 | 30 | ||
Italian Republican Party | 1,003,007 | 4.36 | 23 | ||
National Bloc of Freedom | 637,328 | 2.77 | 16 | ||
Action Party | 334,748 | 1.45 | 7 | ||
Sicilian Independence Movement | 171,201 | 0.74 | 4 | ||
Party of Italian Peasants | 102,393 | 0.44 | 1 | ||
Republican Democratic Concentration | 97,690 | 0.42 | 2 | ||
Sardinian Action Party | 78,554 | 0.34 | 2 | ||
Italian Unionist Movement | 71,021 | 0.31 | 1 | ||
Social Christian Party | 51,088 | 0.22 | 1 | ||
Labour Democratic Party | 40,633 | 0.18 | 1 | ||
Republican Progressive Democratic Front [lower-alpha 2] | 21,853 | 0.09 | 1 | ||
Others | 412,550 | 1.79 | 0 | ||
Invalid/blank votes | 1,936,708 | – | – | ||
Total | 24,947,187 | 100 | 556 | ||
Registered voters/turnout | 28,005,449 | 89.08 | – | ||
Source: Ministry of Interior |
Together with the election, a constitutional referendum took place. Italian electors had to choose if they wanted to continue the reign of Humbert II of Savoy or to turn Italy into a republic. While all regions of Northern Italy as far as Tuscany and Marches gave a majority to the republic, all regions of Southern Italy to Lazio and Abruzzo voted to maintain the monarchy.
Northern Italy is a geographical region in the northern part of Italy. Non-administrative, it consists of eight administrative Regions in northern Italy: Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. As of 2014, its population was 27,801,460. Rhaeto-Romance and Gallo-Italic languages are spoken in the region, as opposed to the Italo-Dalmatian languages spoken in the rest of Italy.
Tuscany is a region in central Italy with an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants (2013). The regional capital is Florence (Firenze).
Marche, or the Marches, is one of the twenty regions of Italy. The name of the region derives from the plural name of marca, originally referring to the medieval March of Ancona and nearby marches of Camerino and Fermo. Marche is well known for its shoemaking tradition, with the finest and most luxurious Italian footwear being manufactured in this region.
Choice | Votes | % |
---|---|---|
Republic | 12,717,923 | 54.3 |
Monarchy | 10,719,284 | 45.7 |
Invalid/blank votes | 1,498,136 | – |
Total | 24,935,343 | 100 |
Registered voters/turnout | 28,005,449 | 89.1 |
Source: Official Gazzette |
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