Voting in Switzerland
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Voting in Switzerland (called votation) is the process by which Swiss citizens make decisions about governance and elect officials. The history of voting rights in Switzerland mirrors the complexity of the nation itself. The polling stations are opened on Saturdays and Sunday mornings but most[1] people vote by post in advance. At noon on Sunday (Abstimmungssonntag in German, Dimanche de votation in French), voting ends and the results are usually known during the afternoon.
- Elections (election of the Federal Assembly)
- Mandatory referendums (votation on a modification of the constitution made by the Federal Assembly)
- Optional referendums (referendum on a law accepted by the Federal Assembly and, that collected 50,000 signatures of opponents)
- Federal popular initiatives (votation on a modification of the constitutionmade by citizens and that collected 100,000 signatures of supporters)
Approximately four times a year, voting occurs over various issues; these include both
The most frequent themes are social issues (e.g. welfare, healthcare, and drug policy), public infrastructure (e.g. public transport and construction projects) and environmental issues (e.g. environment and nature protection), economics, public finances (including taxes), immigration, asylum, and education, but also about culture and media, state system, foreign affairs, and military issues – again on any of the three political levels.[4]
Voter turnout in parliamentary elections saw a continuous decline since the 1970s, down to an all-time low of 42.2% in 1995.[5] In recent years however, voter participation has been slowly growing again and was at 48.5% in 2011.[5]
The average turnout for referendums was at 49.2% in 2011.[6]
Voting procedures
Depending on the Canton voting can be done through showing of hands, postal voting, at polling booths, or electronically through the internet.[10]
Until 1971
There are no
Postal voting
Voters are not required to
Once the voter has filled out their ballot these are put into an anonymous return envelope provided in the package. This first anonymous envelope and a signed transmission card that identify the voter is then put into the return envelope then sent back to the municipality. The return envelope is in fact the shipping envelope with a special opening strip that allow it to be reused to send back the vote. Many voters, especially in villages and small cities, put the return envelope directly into the municipality mailbox. Others return it by post, although not having to pay the postage in some cantons.
Once received at the municipality, the transmission card is checked to verify the right of the voter, then the anonymous return envelope is put into the ballot box with all the other votes.
Polling places
Voters also have an option to cast their vote directly at
Electronic voting
In 2003, in the Swiss canton of Geneva, some residents in the commune of Anières voted over the internet in a trial, marking the first time e-voting (electronic voting) was used in Switzerland for a binding referendum.[1]
The government has allowed cantons to gradually expand the use of e-voting over the years.[13]
In 2015, the Federal Council allowed the following cantons to offer electronic voting (called e-voting there) to Swiss persons living abroad who are registered in these cantons: Geneva, Lucerne, Basel-Stadt and Neuchâtel. This means about 34,000 registered Swiss abroad could vote electronically.[14]
For voters living in Switzerland, the Federal Council offered the opportunity to vote over the Internet only to voters in the cantons of Geneva and Neuchâtel. About 90,000 persons living in Switzerland were able to vote online.[15]
As of 2019, two e-voting systems are in use in Switzerland. CHVote, from Geneva, is in use in cantons Vaud, Bern, Lucerne, Basel City, St Gallen and Aargau. The system is open-source software[16] licensed under the AGPL. But in 2018, Geneva decided to start to phase it out for cost reasons.[17]
The other system is sVote from Swiss Post, proprietary but disclosed software developed by Scytl.[18] As of 2018 It was used in Fribourg, Neuchâtel and Thurgau.[17]
In 2019, politicians and computer experts launched a people's initiative to ban the use of e-voting for security reasons.[19]
Elections
There are three primary election types. The first two, parliamentary elections and executive elections, allow Swiss citizens to vote for candidates to represent them in the government. Parliamentary elections are organised around a proportional multi-party voting system and executive elections are organized around a popular vote directly for individuals, where the individual with the most votes wins.[20] The third type of election, referendums, concern policy issues.
National Council
Rules for the
- Social Democratic Party of Switzerland: 36.9%
- Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland: 25.0%
- Swiss People's Party: 13.7%
- FDP.The Liberals: 13.4%
Two seats were to be elected. Prior to the election, they were held by the Social Democrats and the Christian Democratic Party. The Liberals and the People's Party had made an apparentment. Together, they gained 27.1% which was 2.1% more than the Christian Democratic Party. The second seat went to the People's Party although they received fewer votes than the Christian Democratic Party. Cantons with only one representative such as Nidwalden elect them via majority vote.
Council of States
Members of the
With the exception of the cantons of Neuchâtel and Jura (which use proportional representation to elect their councilors), councilors are elected through an up to two-round system of voting. In the first round of voting, candidates must obtain an absolute majority of the vote in order to be elected. If no candidate receives an absolute majority in the first round of voting then a second round is held in which a simple plurality is sufficient to be elected. The top two finishing candidates in the second round are elected.[22]
Cantonal elections
The voters can also vote for the government of each canton. The ballot has only one line where the voter can place the full name of any of-age citizen that lives in the said canton, i.e.
All Cantons have a single chamber parliament mostly elected by proportional representation. Most of them have several
Referendums
Legislative referendums
Citizens can call constitutional and legislative referendums. Legislative referendums are only possible on laws passed by the legislature. Citizens cannot initiate legislation of their own crafting through legislative referendums.
For each proposal there is a box on the ballot which the voter has to fill with either a "Yes" or a "No". If there are proposals that contradict each other, there is also a tie-break question: "If both proposals are adopted by the people, which proposal do you favor? (the so-called "subsidiary question" introduced in 1987). To challenge a law, citizens must collect 50,000 signatures within 100 days of the official publication of a new law. If they manage to do it, a nationwide referendum is held. And if the majority of the voters reject the law, it is canceled.[2]
Influence of the legislative referendums on the political system
The possibility for the citizens to challenge any law influences the whole political system.[25] It encourages parties to form coalition governments, to minimize the risk that an important party tries to block the action of the government by systematically launching referendums. It gives legitimacy to political decisions. It forces the authorities to listen to all sectors of the population, to minimize the risk that they reject new laws in referendums. Before presenting a new bill to the parliament, the federal government usually makes a wide consultation to ensure that no significant group is frontally opposed to it, and willing to launch a referendum.[25]
Constitutional referendums (Popular initiatives)
Modifications to the constitution are subject to obligatory vote and require a double majority both of all voters nationally and of the cantons. Such votes are called when the parliament proposes a constitutional modification, or when 100,000 citizens sign in eighteen months a
With respect to the cantonal vote, 20 of the 26 cantons have each one vote, but the 6 so-called
This cantonal vote means that small cantons are represented equally with the larger ones. For example,
More than 550 referendums have occurred since the constitution of 1848 (legislative or constitutional).[29]
Municipal voting
Every village, town or city has a deliberative assembly — in some villages, it is the town meeting, where all adult citizens may vote by show of hands. At such meetings the citizen can also present oral or written proposals which are voted on at the next meeting. In larger towns, elected assemblies take the place of the town meetings which are usually elected by proportional representation in one or more districts.
Municipal government is always elected by the citizens, mostly in a majority voting with some exceptions. Those municipal councils have about five to nine members. Loosely one can say, the smaller the town, the fewer party members are in the council. The leader of the council is mostly also voted by the citizens in a majority voting.
The municipal assemblies vote on changes to the "town statutes" (Gemeindereglement), governing such matters as the use of public space, on financial commitments exceeding the competence of the executive branch, and on naturalisations.
Competences at different levels
Federal powers (Swiss Constitution) | Cantonal powers (cantonal constitutions) | Municipal powers (cantonal legislation) |
---|---|---|
Organisation of federal authorities | Organisation of cantonal authorities (own constitution, own anthem, own flag) | Education (kindergarten and primary schools) |
Foreign affairs | Cross-border cooperation | Municipal taxes |
Army and civil protection | Police | Waste management |
National roads (highways) | Relations between religion and state | Municipal streets |
Nuclear energy | Culture | Local infrastructure |
Postal services and telecommunication | Public health | Local police |
Monetary policy | Cantonal streets | Zoning |
Social security (pensions, invalids) | Forests, water, natural resources | Citizenship |
Federal taxes | Education (secondary schools and universities) | |
Civil law, criminal law | Protection of the environment | |
Civil and criminal procedure | Protection of nature and heritage | |
Customs | Citizenship | |
Education (technical universities) | Cantonal taxes | |
Energy policy | ||
Principles for zoning | ||
Protection of the environment | ||
Citizenship |
Voting qualifications
The country as of 2018 has about 8.5 million inhabitants, 6.25 million of which are
All Swiss citizens aged 18 years or older have been allowed to vote at the federal level since women were granted suffrage on 7 February 1971. All adult citizens have been able to vote at the canton level since 27 November 1990, when Appenzell Innerrhoden, the last canton to deny universal suffrage, was compelled by a federal court decision.
In addition, Swiss citizens living outside of the country who are older than 18 are also allowed to vote on federal matters and, in some cantons, on cantonal matters. For these voters, registration through the local or nearest Swiss consulate is compulsory (as they are not already registered in the municipality in which they live). They can choose to register at the most recent Swiss municipality in which they were registered previously, or at their place of origin otherwise.
Votes on citizenship
The municipal parliament, administration or a naturalisation committee decides about naturalisations. However, in some towns, naturalisations were subject to a popular vote. The Supreme Court decided in 2003 that naturalisations were an administrative act and thus must obey the prohibition of arbitrariness, which rules out rejections by anonymous popular vote without an explanatory statement.
There are ongoing discussions about changing the rules: one proposal consists of automatically naturalising foreigners if they fulfill the formal criteria, and citizens can propose non-naturalisation if they give a reason for the proposal. The proposal would be voted on, and if the foreigner doesn't accept the outcome of the vote, he can order the court to verify the objectivity of the reasons. Some politicians have started a
See also
- Women's suffrage in Switzerland
- List of Swiss federal referendums
- Right of foreigners to vote in Switzerland
- Direct democracy
- Landsgemeinde
- Panachage
- Politics of Switzerland
- Political rights act (Switzerland)
Bibliography
- Cormon, Pierre (2015), Swiss Politics for Complete Beginners (2 ed.), Geneva, Switzerland: Slatkine, ISBN 978-2-8321-0607-5
- Vincent Golay and Mix et Remix, Swiss political institutions, Éditions loisirs et pédagogie, 2008. ISBN 978-2-606-01295-3.
- Hirschbühl, Tina (2011a), The Swiss Government Report 1, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA, Presence Switzerland, archived from the original on 19 December 2021 – via YouTube
- Hirschbühl, Tina (2011b), The Swiss Government Report 2, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA, Presence Switzerland, archived from the original on 19 December 2021 – via YouTube
- Hirschbühl, Tina (2011c), How Direct Democracy Works In Switzerland - Report 3, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA, Presence Switzerland, archived from the original on 19 December 2021 – via YouTube
- Hirschbühl, Tina (2011d), How People in Switzerland Vote - Report 4, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA, Presence Switzerland, archived from the original on 19 December 2021 – via YouTube
- Hirschbühl, Tina (2011e), Switzerland & the EU: The Bilateral Agreements - Report 5, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA, Presence Switzerland, archived from the original on 19 December 2021 – via YouTube
- Marabello, Thomas Quinn. "Challenges to Swiss Democracy: Neutrality, Napoleon, & Nationalism," Swiss American Historical Society Review, Jun. 2023, Vol. 59: No. 2. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sahs_review/vol59/iss2/5
References
- ^ a b Wellig, Christoph; Portenier, Alicia; Mendez, Fernando; Germann, Micha; Serdult, Uwe (2015). "Fifteen years of internet voting in Switzerland [History, Governance and Use]". 2015 Second International Conference on EDemocracy & EGovernment (ICEDEG).
- ^ a b Cormon (2015), p. 22.
- ISBN 978-2-606-01295-3.
- ^ "Themen der eidgenössischen Volksabstimmungen" (XSL) (official site). Neuchâtel, Switzerland: Federal Statistical Office FSO. 31 December 2018. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
- ^ a b "Statistik Schweiz - Wahlbeteiligung". Archived from the original on 16 November 2012. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
- ^ "Statistik Schweiz - Stimmbeteiligung". Archived from the original on 10 December 2008. Retrieved 19 July 2008.
- ^ "Votation results for Swiss army abolition, 64.4% No". Admin.ch.
- ^ "Votation for UE adhesion process in 1997 : 74.1% No". Admin.ch.
- ^ "Votation for UE adhesion process in 2001 : 76.8% No". Admin.ch.
- ^ "Elektronisches Abstimmen und Wählen für die Schweiz".
- ^ "Abolition du vote obligatoire entre 1948 et 1971 dans les cantons de ZH, de SG, d'AG, de TG et de VD" (PDF). Admin.ch.
- ^ Leybold-Johnson, Isobel (4 April 2014). "Democratic? The canton where voting is compulsory". swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
- ^ Fenazzi, Urs Geiser, swissinfo ch/urs with additional input Sonia (27 June 2018). "E-voting to be introduced permanently". SWI swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Electronic voting from abroad - www.ch.ch". Archived from the original on 11 February 2017. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
- ^ "Electronic voting in Switzerland - www.ch.ch". Archived from the original on 11 February 2017. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
- ^ GitHub - republique-et-canton-de-geneve/chvote-1-0: Electronic vote system, version 1.0., République et canton de Genève, 5 February 2019, retrieved 10 February 2019
- ^ a b swissinfo.ch, S. W. I.; Corporation, a branch of the Swiss Broadcasting (28 November 2018). "Geneva shelves e-voting platform on cost grounds". SWI swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
- ^ Post, Die Schweizerische. "Swiss Post e-voting". Swiss Post. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
- ^ swissinfo.ch, S. W. I.; Corporation, a branch of the Swiss Broadcasting (25 January 2019). "Opposition against e-voting project gathers pace". SWI swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
- ^ Cormon (2015), p. 28-29.
- ^ "jura.ch: Élections fédérales". Archived from the original on 31 August 2011. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
- ^ "Elections 2015:How the elections to the Council of States are organised: process, rules and principal stages". ch.ch – A service of the Confederation, cantons and communes (official site). Bern, Switzerland: The Swiss Confederation. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
- ^ Swiss Federal Chancellery. "Right to request a referendum". Swiss Portal. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
- ^ Swiss Federal Chancellery. "Right to a popular initiative". Swiss Portal. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
Popular initiatives do not originate in Parliament or in the government but come directly from the citizens.
- ^ a b Cormon (2015), pp. 25–26.
- ^ Cormon (2015), p. 23.
- ^ Swiss Federal Chancellery. (2019, February 28). The Swiss Confederation – a brief guide. Retrieved November 6, 2019, from https://www.bk.admin.ch/bk/en/home/dokumentation/the-swiss-confederation--a-brief-guide.html Archived 9 April 2020 at the Wayback Machine .
- ^ Cormon (2015), p. 24.
- ^ "Swissvotes: Abstimmungsverzeichnis". Swissvotes.ch. Retrieved 12 December 2010.
- ^ Swiss political system, Wolf linder, 2011
- ^ "Initiative populaire fédérale 'pour des naturalisations démocratiques'". Admin.ch. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 12 December 2010.