Italy heads to the polls as country expected to elect first far-right female prime minister

The polls have opened in Italy, with the country widely expected to elect its first far-right female prime minister.

Giorgia Meloni, leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, looks set to win the most seats in the national elections on Sunday, and then form a coalition government including Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party and Matteo Salvini's League party.

Given the country's fractured political spectrum, no single party is forecast to win enough seats to govern alone so right-wing and right-leaning centrists have formed a campaign pact that could propel Ms Meloni into power.

It would make her the first far-right politician to become head of government in a major eurozone economy.

Read more: Who is Georgia Meloni, the far-right leader set to become Italy's first female PM?

The centre-left has not agreed to team up with left-leaning populists, placing them at a disadvantage.

It could be a while until it is known officially who the next PM is, with the process to form a coalition expected to last until at least mid-October.

Elections had originally been due to take place in spring 2023 when parliament's five-year term was set to end.

But populist leaders saw their parties' support steadily slipping both in opinion polls and in various mayoral and gubernatorial races since the last national election in 2018.

In July, Five-Star Movement head Giuseppe Conte, right-wing League leader Mr Salvini and former premier Mr Berlusconi removed their support for Premier Mario Draghi during a confidence vote.

This triggered the premature demise of the wide-ranging coalition government and paved the way for early elections.

Ms Meloni's meteoric rise in opinion polls made the trio of populist leaders nervous about waiting until spring to face voters.

Her Brothers of Italy, a party with neo-fascist roots, won just over 4% in the 2018 election. But recent polls tab the party as possibly taking as much as 25% in the election.

Read more: Italy is voting - here's what happens next and when to expect the first results

Fewer lawmakers and a confusing electoral system

Many lawmakers won't be re-elected - regardless of their legislative record - simply due to the maths around this vote.

Since the last election, a reform has been passed aimed at streamlining parliament and making its operation less costly to taxpayers.

In the upper chamber, the number of senators drops from 315 to 200, while the lower Chamber of Deputies will number 400 instead of 630.

Italy also has a complicated electoral law - something widely agreed upon, including by the lawmakers who created it.

Of the total seats, 36% are determined by a first-past-the-post system - whoever gets the most votes for a particular district wins.

The remaining 64% of the seats get divvied up proportionally, based on candidate lists determined by parties and their alliances.

Read more: Giorgia Meloni - dangerous far-right demagogue or free-thinking radical?

Politicians have likened the proportional part of the electoral system to a game of pinball, particularly in the Chamber of Deputies.

Under the "pinball effect," a candidate who, say, came in first in a specific district could see another candidate who finished second elsewhere suddenly shifted to her or his district, knocking the first-place candidate out of a seat.

Confused? So are many voters.

Except for in the first-past-the-post contests, many Italians are essentially voting for alliances and parties, not candidates, and don't have a direct say in determining their specific representative in the legislature.