Italian general election, 1994

Italian general election, 1994

← 1992 27 March 1994 1996 →
All 630 seats in the Italian Chamber of Deputies 315 seats in the Italian Senate
Turnout	86.3%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Silvio Berlusconi Achille Occhetto Mariotto Segni Party Forza Italia Democratic Party of the Left Segni Pact Alliance Pole of Freedoms & Pole of Good Government Alliance of Progressives Pact for Italy Leader's seat Rome Centre Bologna West Sassari (lost) Seats won 366 (H) 155 (S) 213 (H) 122 (S) 46 (H) 31 (S) Popular vote 16,585,516 13,308,244 6,098,986 Percentage 42.8% 34.3% 15.8%
Legislative election results map. Azure denotes provinces with a Forza Italia plurality, Red denotes those with a Democratic Socialist plurality, Blue denotes those with a National Alliance plurality, Light Blue denotes those with a Populars plurality, Green denotes those with a Lega Nord plurality, Gold denotes those with a Segni Pact plurality, Gray denotes those with a Regionalist plurality.
Prime Minister before election Carlo Azeglio Ciampi Independent Elected Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Forza Italia

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
Independent

Silvio Berlusconi
Forza Italia

A snap national general election was held in Italy on March 27, 1994 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right alliance won a large majority in the Chamber, but just missed winning a majority in the Senate. The Italian People's Party, the renamed Christian Democrats, which had dominated Italian politics for almost half a century, was decimated. It took only 29 seats versus 206 for the DC two years earlier-easily the worst defeat a sitting government in Italy has ever suffered, and one of the worst ever suffered by a Western European governing party.

A new electoral system was introduced in these elections, after the abolition of the proportional representation established after the end of World War II, by a referendum in 1993.

The new intricate electoral system of Italy, nicknamed the Mattarellum (after Sergio Mattarella, who was the official proponent), provided 75% of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies (the Lower House) as elected by plurality voting system, whereas the remaining 25% was assigned by proportional representation, with a minimum threshold of 4%. The method associated with the Senate was even more complicated: 75% of the seats by uninominal method, and 25% by a special proportional method that in practice assigned the remaining seats to minority parties.