A voting slip big enough to keep you warm at night

The voting slip bigger than The Times
From Martin Penner, for The Times in Rome

Italians go to the polls next month faced with voting slips measuring up to 1.5m across.

Standing proud at an average width of 65cm, the voting cards will be broader than an open copy of The Times and only slightly less high. Giuseppe Pisanu, the Interior Minister, admitted that in areas where many parties are standing they could reach 1½.

"I know some people have been ironic about this but I would like to point out that in the United States they are even longer," he said at a presentation press conference, emphasising that the size was the result of a new electoral law.

"It’s like a bed sheet," opposition leader Romano Prodi said as he unfurled a facsimile of the new card on television this week.

- The Times, 10 March 2006