Low turnout marks Italian Referendum 2022. See results.
The 2022 Revocation Referendum (REFERENDUM ABROGATIVI) flopped. Or at least that's how the Italian media has treated the result. In a post here on the Blog, we explained that the referendum would need at least 50% of the population's participation to be considered valid. The turnout in Italy stood at 20.9%, which automatically invalidates the referendum, regardless of the outcome of the vote.
The low adherence was not a surprise. Referendum participation has been low for years, with a downward trend from referendum to referendum. Therefore, it was already expected that there would not be enough quorum to revoke the articles related to Italian Justice asked by this referendum.
PARTICIPATION BY ELECTORAL REGION
In Italy, the participation stood at 20.9%. From a total of just over 46 million voters, just over 9.5 million participated. Participation was higher among those who voted to repeal the five articles, given that Yes won in all five questions. However, this result will not bring any change as the minimum popular participation has not been reached.
It is interesting, however, to see the participation of Italians abroad by electoral region. Italy divides foreign constituencies into four large groups: 1. Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Antarctica; 2. South America; 3. Central and North America; and 4. Europe. All had a share below that of Italian territory, except for South America, which reached 22%. Even in a referendum that wasn't easy to understand, the engagement of Italians residing in South America was greater than that of Italians in Italy.
SOUTH AMERICA
Of the more than 430 thousand voters in Brazil, just over 95 thousand participated, representing 22.19%. Argentina reached even greater participation, with 24.57%. Of the data released, Italians in Bolivia were the most engaged, where just over 1,000 of the 3,000 voters participated, reaching 32.48%.
NORTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA
On the other hand, North and Central America had the lowest turnout, with just over 11%. The United States reached 9.84%, and Honduras was the only one to exceed the minimum participation, with 50.59% from 1099 voters.
AFRICA, ASIA, OCEANIA, AND ANTARTIDA
The largest geographic region achieved just over 14% share. In Cameroon, more than 81% of Italians voted. In Singapore, where we are located, we reached 14.41% of the 2589 voters; 373 participated.
EUROPE
In the region with the most Italians outside Italy, with over 2.5 million voters, the overall turnout was just over 13%. No country has reached the 50% minimum. Latvia came in at just over 41%, while Sweden came in at the bottom with around 3%. Portugal reached 20.5%.