Roundup: Italy's Renzi blasts opposition on last referendum campaign day

On what is the last day of political campaigning ahead of the Dec. 4 referendum, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Friday compared accusations of fraud in the electoral vote of fellow citizens living abroad to "a movie that keeps getting played over and over again."

On Sunday, Italians will be asked in a single Yes or No question whether they accept or reject a constitutional reform law aimed at streamlining and modernizing the country's notoriously slow, expensive and inefficient political machinery.

"Allowing citizens living abroad to vote was proposed by former center-right minister (Mirko) Tremaglia," Renzi said. "I don't understand the point of saying that's where fraud occurs. Why stoke tension and controversy?"

Under a 2001 law proposed by Tremaglia of the now-defunct rightwing National Alliance (AN) party, who was then a minister in the center-right government of Silvio Berlusconi, Italians living abroad have the right to elect 12 Lower House representatives and six senators.

Five years later, the vote of Italians living abroad was decisive in the victory of center-left candidate Romano Prodi, who replaced Berlusconi as prime minister.

The foreign constituency of over four million Italians is divided into four electoral districts: Europe, the Russian Federation and Turkey; South America; North and Central America; and Africa, Asia, Oceania and Antarctica.

Some analysts have estimated between 1.4 and 1.5 million Italians abroad -- or 5 to 6 percent of the total electorate -- will vote in the referendum this coming Sunday.

Last week, Deputy House Speaker Luigi Di Maio from the populist, euro-skeptic 5-Star Movement (M5S) led by comedian Beppe Grillo voiced fears the vote of Italians living abroad would be tampered with.

"I smell fraud," said Di Maio, prompting Interior Minister Angelino Alfano to scoff that Di Maio "must have taken a trip to Bologna or Palermo."

As many as 14 M5S members, activists and MPs from those two districts are under investigation for cloning and faking citizen signatures in support of candidates in local and regional elections.

Several of the suspects -- including three MPs -- have refused to answer questions from prosecutors.

The M5S and other opponents of Renzi's constitutional reform law say they will appeal if the "Yes" vote wins based on ballots from the Italian constituency abroad.

Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni last week reprimanded such critics, saying that "our fellow Italians living abroad are neither second-class citizens nor potential con artists," that the system guarantees the integrity of each vote and that any attempt to tamper with the ballots would be "swiftly identified."

Also on Friday, the Italian prime minister dismissed opposition allegations that a "Yes" win on referendum would lead to snap elections as so much "fictional politics."

"I won't even take that into consideration," said Renzi. "It's up to the president of the republic and parliament to decide when elections are to be held," he stressed.

The "Yes" and "No" vote campaigns wind up at midnight Friday, after which all sides must maintain electoral silence until the vote is held.

In Italy, the law on electoral silence was passed in 1956. It bans all political campaigning and propaganda on the day prior to and the day of a vote, so citizens can freely make up their own minds. Endit