An Italian minister on Wednesday refused opposition demands for snap elections after the coalition supporting Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government lost an important vote in parliament on a bill for a new election law, according to media reports.
"We don't intend to end our experience in government, and we are proud of the stability we've given the country," Luca Ciriani, government minister responsible for relations with parliament, told SkyTG24, according to a report by the ANSA news agency.
The government bill that aims to give voters the option to express preferences about candidates on electoral lists was rejected in a secret ballot by a 187 - 188 vote Tuesday.
Ciriani said between 20 and 25 "sniper" lawmakers belonging to the ruling majority broke ranks and voted against the amendment, covered by anonymity thanks to it being a secret vote.
Meloni said the rejection of the amendment was a "missed opportunity for Italian people," and that it was "the right thing to try," and that the "quagmire" of politics had won again.
The bill would see the current system, a mix of first-past-the-post and proportional representation, replaced with a proportional-representation system with bonus seats for a coalition that obtains at least 42% of the vote to ensure it has a working majority in parliament.
