ITALY: Initial indications would suggest that Italy's assisted fertility referendum, being voted on today and yesterday, will fail to reach a legal quorum.
With polling stations opening at 8am yesterday, voter turnout was registering only 13.4 per cent by 7 pm, well short of the estimated 20 per cent necessary for the 50 per cent plus one quorum to be reached when the polling stations close at 3pm today.
Almost 50 million Italians are entitled to vote in a controversial referendum which aims to repeal key sections of legislation on assisted fertility, introduced in February last year. In particular, the promoters of the referendum wish to repeal those clauses which ban stem cell research, ban the use of egg and sperm donors, limit the availability of in-vitro services to sterile couples of child-bearing age, ban preventive diagnosis of the about-to-be implanted embryo and, perhaps most controversially, protect the "rights" of the embryo.
Throughout a bitter campaign, the question of voter turnout has assumed crucial importance following a call from the Italian bishops, backed by Pope Benedict XVI, not to vote. If a quorum of 50 per cent plus one is not reached, then the referendum is declared null and void no matter what the result of the vote itself.
Senior Italian church figures, including the Cardinal Vicariate, Camillo Ruini (one of Pope Benedict's key electors at the recent conclave) have called for abstention primarily to ensure that the current, restrictive legislation stays in place. Many of those opposed to the referendum also argue that it is inappropriate to address such complex medical and ethical questions in the "Yes" or "No" context of a four part referendum vote.
In contrast, the "Yes" camp have argued that the current legislation blocks vital scientific research and that the egg and sperm donor ban effectively discriminates against gays and single mothers. Furthermore, the current legislation de facto gives an Italian embryo more legal rights than an Italian foetus, given that Italy has an abortion law on its statute book. Many in the Yes camp believe that the current legislation represents a bridgehead prior to an assault on Italy's abortion law.
Among those to vote yesterday were State President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, former EU Commission president Romano Prodi, Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini and Democratic Left (DS) leader Piero Fassino. Mr Fini, like his cabinet colleague, Equal Opportunities Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo, had already announced that he would be voting in favour of repealing the law.
Speaking to reporters after he had voted, Democratic Left leader Mr Fassino suggested that, even if this referendum failed, his party would still move to have the law repealed in parliament, adding: "These are four key questions that should matter for all citizens, four votes to improve a law that we want to make both more human and more just. Four Yes votes in favour of life."
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who maintained a total reserve about his voting intentions throughout the campaign, would appear to have joined the abstentionist camp. He spent most of yesterday at his luxury villa in Sardinia, prior to returning to his electoral college of Milan late last night.
Throughout the campaign, many public figures have argued that the call for abstention is fundamentally anti-democratic in that it alienates the citizen from the political process. Despite those claims, the speakers of both houses of parliament, Pier Ferdinando Casini and Marcello Pera, as well as Francesco Rutelli, leader of centre-left party, La Margherita, were among senior politicians who chose not to vote.