Data overnight showed under 23% of eligible voters had cast their ballots as polls provisionally closed yesterday, far short of the 50% plus one of the electorate needed to make the outcome of the vote binding.

Voting ends at 3pm.

One of the five referendums is about reducing the period of residence required to apply for Italian citizenship by naturalisation to five years from 10 years.

This could affect about 2.5 million foreign nationals, organisers say.

With Italy’s birthrate in sharp decline, economists say the country needs to attract more foreigners to boost its anaemic economy, and migrant workers feel a lot is at stake for them as they seek closer integration into Italian society.

Three other referendum questions would reverse a decade-old liberalisation of the labour market, and a fourth concerns liability rules for accidents at work.

Opposition leftist and centrist parties, civil society groups and a leading trade union have latched on to the issues of labour rights and Italy’s demographic woes as a way of challenging prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition government that took power almost three years ago.

Meloni and her allies encouraged their supporters to boycott the vote.

The prime minister attended a polling station in Rome yesterday but her staff confirmed that she did not collect ballot papers and did not cast a vote, a tactic she had indicated that she would adopt.

A low turnout and a failed referendum could lead to further infighting among centre-left opposition groups which have struggled to find a way to dent Meloni’s popularity since she came to power.