H.E. Mr. Giovanni Adorni Braccesi Chiassi:

Italian people are allowed to vote in Italian parliamentary elections and those living abroad but resident in Italy can also vote in local elections. This is a difficult job to handle as five Senators and ten Members of Italian Parliament are elected abroad. There are major voting districts involved in this - four Italian Members of Parliament and one or two Senators are elected from south America. Representatives are elected for those regions where the majority of Italians reside and many live in south and north America. The problem is, the Italo-Argentine elected as an MP for Rome will also represent Italians resident in Honduras. The Italian in Honduras will not know who his MP is and it will be very difficult to ask him questions.

It is a difficult process to handle because around 4.5 million people with Italian passports live outside the country. Ballot papers are sent to where we think these people live but often they do not receive them because they changed address or country and did not inform us. Often we only find out a person has changed country when he or she goes to renew his or her passport at a different consulate. Perhaps a person was in Buenos Aires but moved to Sydney - the consulate in Sydney will have to contact its counterpart in Buenos Aires to ensure everything is acceptable.

It costs a fortune to allow these people to vote. We calculated that each vote cast from abroad in the European election prior to the most recent one cost approximately €150. In the sense that I must deal with such problems, I am a technician. Our French colleagues came up with a solution to this whereby, when a European or national election is to take place, those who wish to participate can submit their names to the relevant consulate or embassy. This makes things easier because many people living abroad are not even interested in voting and sending them all the information by post is very expensive. Timing is also a factor because we cannot send the relevant papers too far in advance of an election and often we only have three or four weeks to do the entire job. At such times embassies and consulates must stop the many tasks and projects in which they are involved to focus solely on this work. We have pointed out to Italian politicians that a different approach would be better.

Italians living abroad were granted the right to vote in these elections only 15 years ago. I can send the joint committee a copy of the Italian law covering this so that the members can pick and choose the good and bad elements.