The current election system is a form of party-list proportional representation with a series of thresholds to encourage parties to form coalitions. Italy is divided into 26 districts for the Chamber of Deputies and 20 regions for the Senate. Each district is assigned a number of seats in proportion to its share of the population. To guarantee a working majority, the coalition or party that obtains a plurality of the vote, but fewer than 340 seats, is assigned additional seats to reach that number, which roughly is about 54 percent of all seats. Inside each coalition, seats are divided between parties by the largest remainder method.[27]
The coalition or party that wins a plurality in a region is guaranteed 55 percent of the region's Senate seats. As this mechanism is region-based, opposing parties or coalitions may benefit from it in different regions. It therefore does not guarantee any party or coalition a majority in the Senate.