When Italians go to the polls next month they will be presented with a ballot about the size of a pillowcase.
A facsimile of the ballot for the April 9-10 elections was presented by Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu this week and it measured 65cm by 23 cm, or just over 25 inches, making it more than two feet, by more than nine inches.
Voters will use a pink ballot for the House and a yellow one for the Senate.
A novelty this election will be that the party symbols will no longer be presented vertically but horizontally. The symbols of parties in a coalition of five or more will all be presented on the same line, while those with less than five and single parties will be presented line by line.
Ballots needed to be larger this election because the government of Premier Silvio Berlusconi pushed through a new election law returning Italy to a proportional representation system and abolishing single constituency representatives.
Before Italy has a first-past-the-post system for constituency representitives for 75% of the seats in both
houses, together with proportional representation for the remaining 25%.
