Italy's parliament will begin voting to select a new president to replace Giorgio Napolitano on April 18, a statement from lower house speaker Laura Boldrini said on Wednesday, April 3, according Reuters.

Napolitano, whose seven-year term ends in mid-May, has been struggling to break a political deadlock since last month's election left no one with a workable majority, making it likely that the next president will inherit the impasse.

The president is elected by a joint sitting of the two houses of parliament together with representatives from Italy's regions.