CONTESTED BALLOTS IN ITALIAN 1953 ELECTIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01443R000200070007-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 13, 2000
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: December 23, 1953
• Content Type: BRIEF

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NSC BRIEFING 23 December 1953
CONTESTED BALLOTS IN
ITALIAN 1953 ELECTIONS
Approximately 1,300,000 ballots in the
election of 7-8 June were challenged by
poll watchers as invalid for any one of
several reasons - writing of any kind on
ballot, failure to designate party as well i
as candidates, handing in blank ballot,
using ballot not having an official
stamp, etc.
A. Examination of ballots by Chamber
special committee is not yet complete
but findings to date show that between
436,000 and 590,000 were invalid and
that from 700,000 to 860,000 have to
be recounted.
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B. Of those to be counted, at least
100,000 have been recounted so far,
with the trend three to one in favor
of the center electoral bloc of
parties.
1. Embassy Rome believes this center
bloc thus had a winning margin of
some 300,000.
C. If this is so, center parties gained
more than 50 per cent of the votes.
Hence, they are legally entitled to
the two-thirds majority in the Chamber
of Deputies which the March 1953 elec-
toral law was designed to provide.
II. Ex-premier De Gasperi, questioned by
Ambassador Luce late in November as to why
center parties were concealing their vic-
tory, stated that:
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A. To present the new returns to
parliament would cause a chaotic
situation -in that body and necessitate
new elections.
B. To announce the victory would be a good
would have to be developed to make the
new elections worthwhile.
C. To raise again the whole issue of the
March 1953 electoral law was undesir-
able, particularly in view of current
efforts to repeal this law.
It is possible that the slowness of
recount may be due to general apprehension
of the major parties over results and to
the center parties' reluctance to bring up
issue of the unpopular electoral law.
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A. Problem of reallocating seats vir-
tually insoluble and new elections
probably only solution.
B. Parties in general do not want new
elections.
1. They would be expensive.
2. Center fears extremes o.f left and
right might gain.
3. Fear that unseating Communist
deputies might induce violence by
extreme left.
C. Recount favoring center parties might
call into question legality of present
parliament's legislation.
D. Bills are now in parliament to repeal
the 29 March 1953 electoral law. If
this is done, the recount would have
little real meaning.
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