Italians have voted in a referendum to cut the size of the country's parliament by more than a third.

Almost 70% of people voted in favour of the change, with almost all votes counted.

The number of MPs in the lower house will be reduced from 634 to 400. The senate will also be downsized.

The referendum was pushed by the Five Star Movement, part of the governing coalition, which argued that the move would reduce costs.
It was held alongside several key regional elections, where the results were seen as a setback for far-right League leader Matteo Salvini and a boost for the centre left Democratic Party, which is part of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's coalition government with the populist Five Star movement.

What the referendum result means

The total number of MPs and senators will be cut from 945 to 600. The change had already been pushed through parliament. But it needed to be backed by a referendum because it amends the Italian constitution. The changes will have to be made before the 2023 election.

"The reason why most voters have voted in favour of the reductions of the parliamentarians, in my opinion, is that they wanted to have less professional politicians around," Mr Orsina said.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54244025

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-22/italians-vote-to-dump-a-third-of-parliamentarians/12688792

And Nigerians are looking-on like he-goats.

Left for me the Senate should be scrapped and the house of rep, the only house of parliament. What should the two be doing when one can serve same purpose. Recurrent expenditure in our budget is just too largesse. Moreover the house of rep is closer to the electorates than Senate. Please scrap our Senate and retain HoR.

good move. we should borrow a leaf from them and delete the house of reps