Geneva divided over extending vote to foreigners

With right-wing hardliners pushing a xenophobic agenda, expats living in Switzerland continue to face an uphill battle in obtaining rights to vote in political elections.

In Geneva, where foreigners make up almost 40 percent of the population, an advisory body is meeting next Thursday to consider changes to the constitution that would allow non-Swiss more voting rights.

But advisers to the canton’s constituent assembly, an 80-member body elected last year to rewrite the canton’s constitution, dating back to the 19th century, remain divided on how far to go.

Geneva voters in 1993 refused to give foreigners voting rights at the cantonal level with 71 percent of those casting ballots against the idea.

However, 12 years later, non-Swiss adults won the right to vote in municipal elections in the canton, provided they have lived in Switzerland for eight years.

A 17-member commission looking into the issue for the constituent assembly favours extending these rights to allow foreigners to run for positions on municipal councils and executive bodies.

But the members were split 8-8, with one abstention, on allowing foreigners similar rights at the cantonal level.

Nationally, foreigners, who account for 23 percent of the population, are unable to vote federally or to run for office.

Murat Alder, a rapporteur for the commission, said given the strong refusal of Genevans to extend political rights to foreigners it is necessary to proceed slowly in “stages.”

“I recommend a certain prudence,” Alder told the Tribune de Genève.

He said the constituent assembly was elected primarily to “change what doesn’t work in Geneva constitution,” suggesting that a debate over foreigners’ political rights could overwhelm the assembly’s work.

But Florian Irminger, a Green party member of the commission, believes the vote should be extended to foreigners as one way to encourage them to integrate in the canton.

“They should be allowed this vote because it is the canton that decides their daily life,” Irminger told Swisster.

Information from the cantonal voting office shows that foreigners vote in a similar way as Swiss in municipal elections and have not created a “bloc” as some had feared.

An official from Neuchatel testified to the commission that foreigners have responded in a similar fashion in that canton.

“If it works in the city of Geneva why shouldn’t it work in the canton,” Irminger said. Geneva’s future depends on foreigners, both as an international centre and for its economic health, he indicated.

At the moment there are many foreigners living in Switzerland and contributing to the economy, but as last weekend’s referendum result in favour of a minaret ban shows “we have a very aggressive right wing:”

Irminger said if the flow of foreigners is reversed “we will have huge problems.”

The debate on voting rights will continue next spring as part of a process that will see the constituent assembly draft a new constitution to be submitted to a referendum vote in 2012.

Nine of Switzerland’s 26 cantons currently allow some measure of political rights to foreigners who have lived in Switzerland for a certain period.

But Neuchâtel and Jura are so far the only one where non-Swiss can vote in cantonal elections, provided they are 18 years of age.

In the case of Neuchâtel, the right was extended in 2002 to those who have lived in the canton for at least five years and have a proper residency permit.

Foreigners meeting the same criteria can also run for municipal office and participate in municipal elections in the Francophone canton.

In Jura, the right to vote at the cantonal level applies to residents who have lived in Switzerland for at least 10 years however, they are not allowed to vote in referendums involving changes to the constitution.

Foreigners can also participate in municipal elections in Fribourg, where this right was given in 2005, along with the right to run for council.

Other cantons give fewer rights, in some cases allowing individual municipalities to decide whether to extend the franchise to foreigners.

Only five countries in Europe – Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Holland and Sweden - give rights to foreigners to vote in municipal elections, according to a report submitted to the Geneva constituent assembly.

Within the European Union, citizens of member countries are granted EU citizenship, giving them the right to vote in elections at the municipal and the European Union level.