ITALY: Pope Benedict has decided to change the rules to elect his successor in a move meant to ensure that future pontiffs have broad support before white smoke rises again from the Sistine Chapel.
Benedict XVI yesterday issued a decree that partly reverses changes made by his predecessor John Paul II which had opened the possibility of electing a pope with only a slight majority in the event of a deadlock.
From now on, the two-thirds majority needed at the start of voting in the conclave will be required until the very end - no matter how many rounds of balloting end with "black smoke" above St Peter's Square.
The Vatican's chief spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi, said the changes would "guarantee the widest possible consensus for the election of the new pope".
The 80-year-old Benedict also appeared to be remedying what some critics saw as an unfortunate consequence of the changes made by John Paul, who is on the fast-track to sainthood.
They say that instead of simply avoiding a deadlock, the changes John Paul made in 1996 had empowered any majority willing to hold out until the two-thirds requirement expired.
"I believe that the pope has realised the system introduced by John Paul II was giving the majority in the conclave the absolute power to impose its candidate," said Marco Politi, a Vatican analyst with Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
Benedict, in a bid to address the deadlock issue, calls instead in his decree for a run-off vote between the top two candidates after 33 rounds of voting. - (Reuters)