Italian election 2018 EXPLAINED: Everything you need to know before Italy vote HERE

When is the Italian election? Key dates

Italy’s 18th general election since 1948 takes place on Sunday March 4, less than three months after President Sergio Matarella dissolved Parliament on December 28.

In Italy, general elections are held every five years, and this year take place alongside the Lombard regional election and the Lazio regional election.

The people will simultaneously cast their votes for the 630 member lower chamber, known as the Camera dei Deuptati, and the 315 member Senate, known as the Camera del Senato.

Anyone who has reached the age of 18 is eligible to vote, but only Italians over 25 can vote for the members of the upper chamber Senate.

To find out more on key dates, click here.

How does the Italian election voting system work?

The Italian election 2018 will be held under a newly-approved electoral law called Rosatellum Bis, which was inspired by the German system.

The mixed electoral system, which was approved in November 2017 following support from Lega, Forza Italia and the Democrat Party, sees politicians elected in two ways.

In a “winner takes all vote”, 36 percent of seats of elected under a uninominal system.

This is a first-past-the-post electoral system and is used to vote the parties or coalitions leaders, ideally granting the most prominent people in the parties seats in Parliament.

While the remaining 64 percent of seats are elected under a proportional method which sees a list of candidates chosen by party leaders who get more votes.

Each party needs to get at least three percent of votes in both chambers to get into parliament, while coalitions need 10 percent.

To find out more about the voting system, click here.

Who is standing to become Italy PM?

Matteo Renzi is the leader of the centre-left party Partito Democratico – Democratic Party (PD).

Silvio Berlusconi is the leader of Forza Italia, although he cannot become prime minister or even a member of parliament after he was found guilty of fraud in 2013 and banned from holding public office for six years.

The 81-year-old Mr Berlusconi announced eurocrat Antonio Tajani was his preferred candidate for PM in the Italian election 2018 this week.

Lega – formerly Lega Nord – is far more right-wing than Forza Italia and is led by Matteo Salvini.

Five Star Movement is one of the parties that does not want to enter into any coalition.

It is led by Beppe Grillo – an Italian comedian and actor – but Luigi Di Maio would become the PM if the party wins.

To find out more about the contenders for the Italian election 2018, click here.

When do polls open, what time do polls close?

On Sunday, Italians will head to the polls to cast their ballots for the 945 member Parliament, between 7am and 11pm local tim (6am and 11pm GMT).

To find out more, click here.

When are exit polls out? When will results be announced?

The first exit polls should be published immediately after polls close at 11pm local time.

But it will take several hours before clear results flood in.

The votes are not expected to be fully counted until around 2pm on Monday local time (1pm GMT).

However, the first actual results could be released in the early hours of Monday, according to media reports.

To read more about exit polls, click here.

What are the latest Italian Election 2018 polls?

Under Italian law, publishing opinion polls in the the penultimate two weeks of the electoral campaign is outlawed, but the last batch of polls paints a pretty clear picture of how the vote will go down.

Since the start of polling back in January 2018, the M5S has been a clear favourite to be the single biggest party in Parliament, followed by the PD.

A February 15 poll by Demopolis indicates a 28 percent vote for the M5S, a 22.5 percent vote for PD and 16.5 for Berlusconi’s FI.

Who will win Italian election 2018?

Despite bad reviews in Rome, Five Star Movement is the number one single party in the polls, projected to win more than 27 percent of votes.

The incumbent ruling party, the Democratic Party, is behind, projected to win less than 23 percent.

But Berlusconi is expected to lead the way to victory with his centre-right coalition of three parties — former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, the populist La Lega and Brothers of Italy, with neo-fascist roots — polling at 37 percent.

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Will Italy LEAVE the European Union? Is Italexit on the cards?

The economy is likely to be the biggest influencer over Sunday’s Italian Election 2018, with Silvio Berlusconi back in the spotlight as he leads the centre-right coalition in battle against the Five Star Movement’s Luigi Di Maio and the Democratic Party’s (PD) Matteo Renzi.

Italian public debt has risen from an already high 100 percent of GDP at the end of 2007 to more than 130 percent, with only Greece facing a more dire economic situation in Europe.

And bad loans from businesses hurt by the ailing economy have built up in the banking system after companies were unable to service them – making the pile of non-performing loans the biggest of any country in Europe.

The bad loan stack is now so vast it amount to almost a quarter of the total in the EU.

Leaving the Euro could deal a painful blow to Brussels as it would require Italy to leave the European bloc in the same fashion as Brexit.

But Italy is becoming increasingly disillusioned with the Euro as its economy shows no sign of improving – public debt currently stands at 133 per cent of its GDP.

To find out more about italexit, click here. To find out more about Italy and the Eurozone, click here.