Pope John Paul had introduced the reforms to avoid deadlocks like that which occurred during a 13th Century conclave when negotiations dragged on for three years.
In the past, competing factions have reportedly tried to negotiate compromise candidates to break deadlocks and prevent undesirable candidates from winning in the end, according to Bruter.
Yet there remains a strong underlying desire, in a region that has come to despair of ever breaking its multiple deadlocks, that regime change in America could reverberate positively here.