The actress Sophia Loren is just one of 410,101 Italians living abroad who will not have the right to vote in tomorrow's referendum when just over 49 million Italians are called to vote on seven diverse issues, of which perhaps the most important concerns electoral reform.
Loren, who is a resident of Switzerland and spends much of her time in the US, was the most illustrious victim of a decree introduced by the newly formed government of Mr Giuliano Amato, intended to "clean up" electoral registers by eliminating dead or missing voters.
The removal of 0.74 per cent of voters from the electoral roll is of vital importance since the key issue at stake tomorrow is not which way the vote will go but rather concerns the electoral quorum. For a referendum vote to have constitutional validity, 50 per cent plus one of those entitled to vote (24,533,209 voters this weekend) must turn out to vote.
This is the 13th time since 1974 - the successful pro-divorce referendum - that Italians have been called to vote on complex issues in a referendum. Politicians in favour of the referendums, especially that concerning the switch to a 100 per cent majority vote system in parliamentary elections, are wise to be wary of voter fatigue.
Three of the referendums concern career structures in the judiciary, while another is about the abolition of compulsory pension fund payments. However, most attention will be focused on the other three referendums - about the right to terminate employment, political party funding and electoral legislation. The Confederate Trade Unions have fought hard against the "firing" referendum, intended to liberalise the labour market, but seen by them as a "barbaric" attack on the hard-won right to employment protection. If the party funding referendum seems familiar, so it is since Italians voted on a similar question in a 1993 referendum when they opted to scrap party funding (worth £38.9 million in 1998). In the meantime, however, parties found a way round the referendum by granting themselves "electoral expenses". On Sunday, Italians can vote for the abolition of these.
By far the most potentially significant referendum, however, is that concerning the majority vote.
Proponents claim that only a 100 per cent majority vote will guarantee a stable bipolar system, by reducing the electoral weight and bargaining power of smaller parties which consistently destablise governing coalitions.