Federal Act on Political Rights

Per­sons lack­ing leg­al ca­pa­city who are in­eligible to vote in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 136 para­graph 1 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion are per­sons who are sub­ject to a gen­er­al deputy­ship or are rep­res­en­ted by a carer as they are per­man­ently in­cap­able of judge­ment.

¹Votes shall be cast in the polit­ic­al dom­i­cile, i.e. the com­mune in which the per­son eli­gible to vote is res­id­ent and re­gistered to vote. Per­sons of no-fixed res­id­ence shall vote in their com­mune of ori­gin.¹

²Any per­son who de­pos­its an iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ment oth­er than the cer­ti­fic­ate of ori­gin (cer­ti­fic­ate of res­id­ence, pro­vi­sion­al cer­ti­fic­ate, etc.) shall ac­quire polit­ic­al dom­i­cile only if they prove that they are not re­gistered to vote in the place where their cer­ti­fic­ate of ori­gin is de­pos­ited.

¹Per­sons who are eli­gible to vote at the polit­ic­al dom­i­cile must be entered in the elect­or­al re­gister. Re­gis­tra­tions and de­le­tions must be car­ried out of­fi­cially.

²Pri­or to an elec­tion or vote, entries must be made in the elect­or­al re­gister un­til the fifth day be­fore the polling day provided the re­quire­ments for par­ti­cip­a­tion are ful­filled on the polling day.

³The elect­or­al re­gister is shall be avail­able for in­spec­tion to those who are eli­gible to vote.

¹Of­fi­cial bal­lot pa­pers must be used for vot­ing. Can­ton­al vote re­cord­ing vouch­ers for elec­tron­ic data pro­cessing shall be re­garded as equi­val­ent to of­fi­cial bal­lot pa­pers.¹

²Bal­lot pa­pers that are not pre-prin­ted must be com­pleted by hand. Pre-prin­ted bal­lot pa­pers may be altered only by hand.

³Per­sons who are eli­gible to vote may vote in per­son or by post.² Vot­ing in elec­tron­ic vot­ing pi­lot schemes is gov­erned by Art­icle 8a.³

⁴ and ⁵…⁴

⁶Votes may be cast by proxy at the polling sta­tion provided can­ton­al law per­mits this for can­ton­al votes and elec­tions. Per­sons who are eli­gible to vote but who are un­able to write may have their bal­lot pa­per com­pleted in ac­cord­ance with their in­struc­tions by per­son of their choice who is eli­gible to vote.⁵

⁷Vot­ing secrecy must be pre­served.

The can­tons shall en­sure that any per­son who, due to a dis­ab­il­ity or any oth­er reas­on, is per­man­ently in­cap­able of car­ry­ing out the pro­ced­ures re­quired for vot­ing is able to vote.

¹The can­tons shall per­mit ad­vance vot­ing on at least two of the four days im­me­di­ately pri­or to the polling day.

²For the pur­pose of ad­vance vot­ing, can­ton­al law must provide for all or cer­tain polling sta­tions to be open for a spe­cif­ic time or that per­sons eli­gible to vote may hand over their bal­lot pa­per in a sealed en­vel­ope at a pub­lic of­fice.

³Where can­tons provide for an ex­ten­ded form of ad­vance vot­ing, this also ap­plies in fed­er­al votes and elec­tions.

⁴The can­tons shall en­act the re­quired pro­vi­sions re­lat­ing to the count­ing of all the votes cast, the pre­ser­va­tion of vot­ing secrecy and the pre­ven­tion of ab­uses.

¹The can­tons shall provide a simple pro­ced­ure for postal vot­ing. In par­tic­u­lar, they shall en­act pro­vi­sions to guar­an­tee the veri­fic­a­tion of eli­gib­il­ity to vote, vot­ing secrecy and the count­ing of all the votes cast, and to pre­vent ab­uses.

²Postal vot­ing is per­mit­ted from the time of re­ceipt of the doc­u­ments re­quired to cast a val­id vote in ac­cord­ance with can­ton­al law.¹

¹The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may in con­sulta­tion with in­ter­ested can­tons and com­munes per­mit elec­tron­ic vot­ing pi­lot schemes that are lim­ited in their geo­graph­ic­al scope, in the dates on which they are held, and in the sub­ject mat­ter to which they re­late.

^1bisIt may on ap­plic­a­tion au­thor­ise can­tons that have con­duc­ted elec­tron­ic vot­ing pi­lot schemes suc­cess­fully and without mal­func­tion over a lengthy peri­od to con­tin­ue such schemes for a peri­od that it stip­u­lates. It may make au­thor­isa­tion sub­ject to re­quire­ments or con­di­tions or, tak­ing ac­count of the over­all cir­cum­stances, ex­clude elec­tron­ic vot­ing at any time, wheth­er in terms of its geo­graph­ic­al scope, the sub­ject mat­ter to which it relates, or the date on which it is held.²

²The veri­fic­a­tion of eli­gib­il­ity to vote, vot­ing secrecy and the count­ing of all the votes cast must be guar­an­teed and ab­uses pre­ven­ted.

³…³

⁴The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails of such schemes.

¹The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ines the rules by which polling days are ap­poin­ted. In do­ing so, it shall take ac­count of the re­quire­ments of those eli­gible to vote, par­lia­ment, the can­tons, the parties and the agen­cies re­spons­ible for ef­fect­ing ser­vice of vot­ing doc­u­ments, and shall avoid any col­li­sions of dates that may res­ult from dif­fer­ences between the cal­en­dar year and the church year.¹

^1bisThe Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine, four months pri­or to the polling day at the latest, which pro­pos­als are to be sub­mit­ted to the vote of the People. This peri­od of four months may be re­duced in the case of fed­er­al acts that have been de­clared to be ur­gent.²

²Each can­ton is re­spons­ible for the con­duct of the vote with­in its own ter­rit­ory and is­sues the re­quired reg­u­la­tions.

¹The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall con­tinu­ally in­form per­sons eli­gible to vote about fed­er­al pro­pos­als to be sub­mit­ted to the vote of the People.

²In do­ing so, it shall com­ply with the prin­ciples of com­plete­ness, ob­jectiv­ity, trans­par­ency and pro­por­tion­al­ity.

³It shall present the most im­port­ant views rep­res­en­ted in the par­lia­ment­ary de­cision-mak­ing pro­cess.

⁴It shall not make a re­com­mend­a­tion on how to vote that di­verges from the po­s­i­tion of the Fed­er­al As­sembly.

¹The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall provide the can­tons with the pro­pos­als to be sub­mit­ted to a vote of the People and the bal­lot pa­pers.

²Each pro­pos­al shall be ac­com­pan­ied by a short, ob­ject­ive ex­plan­a­tion from the Fed­er­al Coun­cil that shall also take ac­count of the opin­ions of sig­ni­fic­ant minor­it­ies. The pro­pos­al must con­tain the word­ing of the ques­tions on the bal­lot pa­per. In the case of pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ives and ref­er­en­dums, the ini­ti­at­ive com­mit­tee shall in­form the Fed­er­al Coun­cil of their ar­gu­ments and the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall take such ar­gu­ments in­to ac­count in its ex­plan­at­ory state­ment. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may amend or re­ject de­fam­at­ory, blatantly false or ex­cess­ively long state­ments. Ref­er­ences to elec­tron­ic sources may be in­cluded in the ex­plan­at­ory state­ment only if the au­thor of the ref­er­ences de­clares in writ­ing that none of the con­tent of the sources is il­leg­al and that the sources are not linked to elec­tron­ic pub­lic­a­tions with il­leg­al con­tent.²

³Per­sons eli­gible to vote shall re­ceive the doc­u­ments re­quired to cast a val­id vote un­der can­ton­al law (bal­lot pa­per, polling card, of­fi­cial vot­ing en­vel­ope, val­id­a­tion stamp³, etc.) at least three and no more than four weeks pri­or to the polling day. Pro­pos­als sub­mit­ted to a vote of the People and ex­plan­at­ory state­ments may be sent at an earli­er date. The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall pub­lish the pro­pos­als and the ex­plan­at­ory state­ment elec­tron­ic­ally at least six weeks pri­or to the polling day.⁴⁵

⁴The can­tons may by law au­thor­ise com­munes to send only one copy of the pro­pos­als and the ex­plan­at­ory state­ments to each house­hold un­less a mem­ber of the house­hold who is eli­gible to vote re­quests that per­son­al cop­ies be sent.⁶

¹Bal­lot pa­pers are in­val­id if they

a.

are not of­fi­cial;

b.

have been com­pleted oth­er than by hand;

c.

do not per­mit the in­ten­tion of the voter to be clearly re­cog­nised;

d.

con­tain de­fam­at­ory re­marks or ob­vi­ously ir­rel­ev­ant mark­ings;

e.¹

…

²Grounds for in­valid­ity or nullity that re­late to can­ton­al pro­ced­ures (of­fi­cial vot­ing en­vel­ope, val­id­a­tion stamp, etc.) are re­served.

³In the case of elec­tron­ic vot­ing pi­lot schemes², the le­gis­la­tion of each can­ton con­duct­ing such a scheme shall de­term­ine the re­quire­ments ac­cord­ing to which votes are val­idly cast and the grounds for in­valid­ity.³

¹Blank and in­val­id bal­lot pa­pers shall be dis­reg­arded when de­term­in­ing the res­ult of the vote.

²Where the yes-votes in a can­ton are equal in num­ber to the no-votes, the vote of that can­ton shall be coun­ted to­wards the can­tons vot­ing no.²

³A very close res­ult re­quires a re­count if there are cred­ible al­leg­a­tions of ir­reg­u­lar­it­ies that by their nature and ex­tent could have in­flu­enced the fed­er­al res­ult.³

¹In every polling sta­tion, a re­port shall be drawn up on the res­ult of the vote which states the total num­ber of per­sons eli­gible to vote and the num­ber of Swiss cit­izens res­id­ent abroad who are eli­gible to vote, the total num­ber of voters, the total num­ber of blank, in­val­id and val­id bal­lot pa­pers, and the num­ber of votes cast in fa­vour of and against the pro­pos­al.¹

²The re­port shall be sent to the can­ton­al gov­ern­ment. The can­ton­al gov­ern­ment shall com­pile the pro­vi­sion­al res­ults from the en­tire can­ton, no­ti­fy the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery of the res­ults and pub­lish the same in the of­fi­cial can­ton­al gaz­ette with­in 13 days of the polling day. If ne­ces­sary, the can­ton­al gov­ern­ment shall pub­lish a spe­cial is­sue of the of­fi­cial can­ton­al gaz­ette.²

³The can­tons shall sub­mit the re­port, and if so re­ques­ted, the bal­lot pa­pers, to the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery with­in ten days of ex­piry of the peri­od al­lowed for an ap­peal to be lodged (Art. 79 para. 3). Fol­low­ing val­id­a­tion of the res­ult of the vote, the bal­lot pa­pers shall be des­troyed.

¹The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall as­cer­tain the res­ult of the vote (val­id­a­tion) as soon as it is es­tab­lished that no ap­peal against the vote has been filed with the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court, or as soon as a de­cision has been made on such an ap­peal.¹

²The val­id­a­tion de­cree shall be pub­lished in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette.

³Amend­ments to the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion shall come in­to force on their ad­op­tion by the People and the can­tons, un­less the pro­pos­al provides oth­er­wise.

⁴Where a change in the law can­not be delayed and as soon as the res­ult of the vote is bey­ond dis­pute, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil or the Fed­er­al As­sembly may bring draft le­gis­la­tion or fed­er­al de­crees on the ad­op­tion of in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies pro­vi­sion­ally in­to force pri­or to the com­ple­tion of the val­id­a­tion pro­ced­ure, or in the case of acts that have been de­clared to be ur­gent, al­low such acts to con­tin­ue in force, or re­peal the same.²

¹The al­loc­a­tion of seats in the Na­tion­al Coun­cil among the can­tons is based on the fig­ures for the res­id­ent pop­u­la­tion ob­tained from the re­gister-re­lated sur­veys car­ried out as part of the census in ac­cord­ance with the Census Act of 22 June 2007² in the first cal­en­dar year fol­low­ing the pre­vi­ous gen­er­al elec­tions to the Na­tion­al Coun­cil.

²Based on the bind­ing fig­ures for the res­id­ent pop­u­la­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 13 of the Census Act of 22 June 2007, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall make a bind­ing de­cision on the num­ber of seats to be al­loc­ated to each can­ton in the fol­low gen­er­al elec­tion to the Na­tion­al Coun­cil.

The 200 seats in the Na­tion­al Coun­cil shall be al­loc­ated among the can­tons in ac­cord­ance with the fol­low­ing pro­ced­ure:²

a.

Pre­lim­in­ary al­loc­a­tion:

1.

The res­id­ent pop­u­la­tion of Switzer­land is di­vided by 200. To ob­tain the first al­loc­a­tion num­ber, the res­ult is roun­ded up to the nearest whole num­ber, un­less it is already a whole num­ber, in which case it is in­creased to the next highest whole num­ber. Each can­ton whose pop­u­la­tion is lower than this num­ber is al­loc­ated one seat, and is ex­cluded from the fur­ther stages of the al­loc­a­tion pro­ced­ure.

2.

The res­id­ent pop­u­la­tion of the re­main­ing can­tons is di­vided by the num­ber of seats that have yet to be al­loc­ated. To ob­tain the second al­loc­a­tion num­ber, the res­ult is roun­ded up to the nearest whole num­ber, un­less it is already a whole num­ber, in which case it is in­creased to the next highest whole num­ber. Each can­ton whose pop­u­la­tion is lower than this num­ber is al­loc­ated one seat, and is ex­cluded from the fur­ther stages of the al­loc­a­tion pro­ced­ure.

3.

This pro­ced­ure is re­peated un­til the re­main­ing can­tons reach the fi­nal al­loc­a­tion num­ber.

b.

Prin­cip­al al­loc­a­tion: each re­main­ing can­ton is al­loc­ated as many seats as its pop­u­la­tion di­vided by the fi­nal al­loc­a­tion num­ber.

c.

Fi­nal al­loc­a­tion: the re­main­ing seats are di­vided among the can­tons with the highest frac­tions of a whole num­ber re­main­ing. Where more than one can­ton has the same re­main­ing frac­tion, the can­ton or can­tons with the lower or low­est re­main­ing num­ber that res­ults from the di­vi­sion of their pop­u­la­tion by the first al­loc­a­tion num­ber are ex­cluded. If this also res­ults in the same re­main­ing num­ber for more than one can­ton, the al­loc­a­tion of the re­main­ing seats is de­cided by draw­ing lots.

¹The or­din­ary gen­er­al elec­tion to the Na­tion­al Coun­cil shall be held on the second last Sunday in Oc­to­ber. The can­ton­al gov­ern­ment shall fix the earli­est pos­sible date for by-elec­tions and sup­ple­ment­ary elec­tions.

²The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall fix the date for an ex­traordin­ary gen­er­al elec­tion in terms of Art­icle 193 para­graph 3 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion.¹

If lots must be drawn, this takes place in the can­ton sub­ject to the or­ders of the can­ton­al gov­ern­ment, or at a fed­er­al level sub­ject to the or­ders of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

¹Can­ton­al law shall spe­cify one Monday in the Au­gust of the elec­tion year as the fi­nal date for the sub­mis­sion of can­did­ate lists, and it shall stip­u­late the au­thor­ity to which the lists should be sub­mit­ted.²

²The can­did­ate lists must ar­rive at the can­ton­al au­thor­ity on the fi­nal date for sub­mis­sion at the latest.

³The can­tons shall no­ti­fy the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery of each can­did­ate list without delay.

¹A can­did­ate list may con­tain no more names of per­sons eli­gible for elec­tion than the num­ber of seats in the Na­tion­al Coun­cil that have been al­loc­ated to the con­stitu­ency, and no name may ap­pear more than twice on any list. Where a can­did­ate list con­tains more than the max­im­um num­ber of names, the last names on the list shall be de­leted.

²The can­did­ate lists must provide the fol­low­ing de­tails for each can­did­ate:

a.

of­fi­cial sur­name and first names;

b.

the name by which the per­son is known in polit­ics or in every­day life;

c.

sex;

d.

date of birth;

e.

home ad­dress in­clud­ing post­code;

f.

place and can­ton of ori­gin; and

g.

oc­cu­pa­tion.¹

³Each can­did­ate must con­firm in writ­ing that they ac­cept their nom­in­a­tion. In the ab­sence of such con­firm­a­tion, the name of the can­did­ate shall be de­leted from the list.²

Each can­did­ate list must bear a des­ig­na­tion that is suf­fi­cient to dis­tin­guish it from oth­er lists. Groups that sub­mit lists of can­did­ates with identic­al ele­ments in the main des­ig­na­tion and that in­tend to com­bine such lists shall de­clare one of these can­did­ate lists to be the par­ent list.¹

¹Each can­did­ate list must be signed by hand by a min­im­um num­ber of per­sons who are both eli­gible to vote and have their polit­ic­al dom­i­cile in the con­stitu­ency. The min­im­um num­ber is:

a.

100 in can­tons with 2-10 seats;

b.

200 in can­tons with 11-20 seats;

c.

400 in can­tons with more than 20 seats.²

²No per­son eli­gible to vote has the right to sign more than one can­did­ate list. They may not with­draw their sig­na­ture fol­low­ing sub­mis­sion of the can­did­ate list.

³The quor­ums in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 above do not ap­ply to any party that was duly re­gistered with the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery at the end of the year pre­ced­ing the year of the elec­tion (Art. 76a) provided that it has been rep­res­en­ted in the Na­tion­al Coun­cil for the same con­stitu­ency in the le­gis­lat­ive peri­od that is due to ex­pire or it achieved at least three per cent of the vote in the same can­ton at the pre­vi­ous gen­er­al elec­tion.³

⁴Any party fall­ing with­in the terms of para­graph 3 above must simply sub­mit the leg­ally val­id sig­na­tures of all its can­did­ates to­geth­er with those of its pres­id­ent and sec­ret­ary.⁴

¹The sig­nat­or­ies must ap­point an agent for the can­did­ate list and a deputy agent. If they fail to do so, then those per­sons whose names ap­pear in first and second place as sig­nat­or­ies to the list are deemed to be the agent and deputy agent re­spect­ively.

²The agent and, in the event of their in­ca­pa­city, the deputy agent have the right and the ob­lig­a­tion to make such leg­ally-bind­ing de­clar­a­tions on be­half of the sig­nat­or­ies as may be re­quired to ob­vi­ate any ob­jec­tions.

Those eli­gible to vote in a con­stitu­ency may in­spect the lists of can­did­ates and the names of the sig­nat­or­ies at the of­fices of the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity.

¹If the name of a can­did­ate ap­pears on more than one can­did­ate list in any con­stitu­ency, the name shall be de­leted im­me­di­ately by the can­ton from all the can­did­ate lists on which it ap­pears.

²The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall im­me­di­ately de­lete from the can­did­ate list any can­did­ate whose name already ap­pears on an elect­or­al list or a can­did­ate list in an­oth­er can­ton.

³The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall im­me­di­ately no­ti­fy the can­tons con­cerned of the de­le­tions that it has made.

¹The can­ton shall ex­am­ine the can­did­ate lists and al­low the agent rep­res­ent­ing the sig­nat­or­ies a peri­od with­in which to rec­ti­fy de­fi­cien­cies in the can­did­ate list, al­ter des­ig­na­tions that give rise to con­fu­sion, and nom­in­ate re­place­ment can­did­ates for can­did­ates whose names have been of­fi­cially de­leted.¹

²The re­place­ment can­did­ates must con­firm in writ­ing that they ac­cept their nom­in­a­tion. In the ab­sence of such con­firm­a­tion or where the rel­ev­ant name already ap­pears on an­oth­er can­did­ate list or the can­did­ate is not eli­gible for elec­tion, the re­place­ment can­did­ate is de­leted from the list.² Un­less the agent for the can­did­ate list re­quests oth­er­wise, re­place­ment can­did­ates are entered at the end of the can­did­ate list.

³In the event of any de­fi­ciency not be­ing rec­ti­fied with­in the peri­od al­lowed, the can­did­ate list is deemed in­val­id. If the de­fi­ciency relates only to one can­did­ate, their name is simply de­leted.

⁴No can­did­ate list may be fur­ther amended from the second Monday fol­low­ing the fi­nal date for sub­mis­sion of can­did­ate lists. The fore­go­ing does not ap­ply to the of­fi­cial de­clar­a­tion of the in­valid­ity of mul­tiple can­did­a­cies sub­sequently dis­covered (Art. 32a). Can­ton­al le­gis­la­tion may re­duce to one week the peri­od al­lowed for rec­ti­fic­a­tion.³

¹The fi­nal can­did­ate lists are known as elect­or­al lists.

²Each list shall be provided with a ref­er­ence num­ber.

¹Two or more elect­or­al lists may at the latest by the end of the peri­od al­lowed for rec­ti­fic­a­tion (Art. 29 para­graph 4) be com­bined with each oth­er by means of a un­an­im­ous de­clar­a­tion of the sig­nat­or­ies or their agents. With­in a com­bined elect­or­al list, only elect­or­al list sub-com­bin­a­tions are per­mit­ted.

^1bisList sub-com­bin­a­tions are val­id only in the case of elect­or­al lists with the same des­ig­na­tion that dif­fer­en­ti­ate them­selves from each oth­er solely by an ad­di­tion­al des­ig­na­tion in­dic­at­ing a dis­tinc­tion that is based on sex, the wing of a polit­ic­al group, re­gion, or age.

²List com­bin­a­tions and list sub-com­bin­a­tions must be in­dic­ated on pre-prin­ted bal­lot pa­pers.

³De­clar­a­tions re­lat­ing to elect­or­al list com­bin­a­tions and elect­or­al list sub-com­bin­a­tions may not be re­voked.

¹At the earli­est pos­sible op­por­tun­ity, the can­ton shall pub­lish in the of­fi­cial can­ton­al gaz­ette the elect­or­al lists with their des­ig­na­tions and their ref­er­ence num­bers as well as ref­er­ences to any list com­bin­a­tions or list sub-com­bin­a­tions.

²The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall pub­lish the elect­or­al lists in elec­tron­ic form in­dic­at­ing the of­fi­cial sur­names and first names, year of birth, oc­cu­pa­tion, place of ori­gin and place of res­id­ence of the can­did­ates.²

¹If a mul­tiple can­did­acy is dis­covered fol­low­ing the rec­ti­fic­a­tion of the can­did­ate lists, the can­did­acy con­cerned shall be de­clared in­val­id on all the lists af­fected:

a.

by the can­ton, where the same can­did­ate ap­pears on more than one list in that can­ton;

b.

by the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery, where the same can­did­ate ap­pears on lists in more than one can­ton.

²The can­tons con­cerned and the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall in­form each oth­er im­me­di­ately of the can­did­a­cies that have been de­clared in­val­id.

³Where pos­sible, the names of per­sons whose can­did­acy has been de­clared in­val­id shall be de­leted from the lists be­fore they are pub­lished.

⁴The de­clar­a­tion of the in­valid­ity of a can­did­acy on lists that have already been pub­lished shall be pub­lished im­me­di­ately in elec­tron­ic form in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette and in the of­fi­cial gaz­ette of all the can­tons con­cerned.

¹The can­tons shall pre­pare bal­lot pa­pers for all the elect­or­al lists, which each con­tain pre-prin­ted de­tails of the list des­ig­na­tion, any elect­or­al list com­bin­a­tion, the ref­er­ence num­ber and can­did­ate in­form­a­tion (as a min­im­um the sur­names, first names and place of res­id­ence), as well as bal­lot pa­pers that are not pre-prin­ted.

^1bisIf the can­ton pre­pares vote re­cord­ing vouch­ers in­stead of bal­lot pa­pers, per­sons eli­gible to vote shall also re­ceive a sum­mary of the de­tails of each of the can­did­ates and of the elect­or­al list des­ig­na­tions, and of any list com­bin­a­tions and list sub-com­bin­a­tions.¹

²The can­tons shall ar­range for a com­plete set of all bal­lot pa­pers to be de­livered to each per­son eli­gible to vote at least three weeks and no more than four weeks pri­or to the polling day.²

³The sig­nat­or­ies may ob­tain ad­di­tion­al pre-prin­ted bal­lot pa­pers at cost price from the can­ton­al chan­celler­ies.

The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall is­sue brief in­struc­tions on vot­ing pro­ced­ures pri­or to each gen­er­al elec­tion, which are de­livered along with the bal­lot pa­pers to the per­sons eli­gible to vote in can­tons with a sys­tem of pro­por­tion­al rep­res­ent­a­tion (Art. 33 para­graph 2).

¹Any per­son who uses the bal­lot pa­per that is not pre-prin­ted may enter the names of eli­gible can­did­ates and add the list des­ig­na­tion or ref­er­ence num­ber of an elect­or­al list.

²Any per­son who uses a pre-prin­ted bal­lot pa­per may de­lete pre-prin­ted can­did­ate names; they may enter the names of can­did­ates from oth­er elect­or­al lists (split­ting the vote). They may also de­lete the pre-prin­ted ref­er­ence num­ber and elect­or­al list des­ig­na­tion or re­place the same with the num­ber and des­ig­na­tion of a dif­fer­ent list.

³They may enter the name of the same can­did­ate on the bal­lot pa­per twice (ac­cu­mu­lat­ing).

Votes for can­did­ates who have died in the peri­od since the fi­nal rec­ti­fic­a­tion of any de­fi­cien­cies in the can­did­ate lists (Art. 29 para. 4) are coun­ted as per­son­al votes for those can­did­ates.

¹Where a bal­lot pa­per con­tains few­er val­id votes for can­did­ates than the num­ber of seats in the Na­tion­al Coun­cil al­loc­ated to the con­stitu­ency, the lines that have not been com­pleted on the bal­lot pa­per count as ad­di­tion­al votes for the elect­or­al list whose des­ig­na­tion or ref­er­ence num­ber is entered on the bal­lot pa­per. In the ab­sence of a des­ig­na­tion or ref­er­ence num­ber, or if the bal­lot pa­per con­tains more than one of the eli­gible list des­ig­na­tions or ref­er­ence num­bers, the un­com­pleted lines are not coun­ted (blank votes).

²Where more than one re­gion­al list with the same des­ig­na­tion has been sub­mit­ted in any can­ton, ad­di­tion­al votes on a bal­lot pa­per that does not des­ig­nate the re­gion are coun­ted to­wards the list re­lat­ing to the re­gion in which the bal­lot pa­per is handed in.¹

^2bisIn the case of the oth­er pos­sible ap­plic­a­tions of Art­icle 31 para­graph 1^bis, the ad­di­tion­al votes are coun­ted to­wards the list whose des­ig­na­tion is entered on the bal­lot pa­per. The ad­di­tion­al votes on in­suf­fi­ciently des­ig­nated bal­lot pa­pers are coun­ted to­wards the elect­or­al list that has been de­clared to be the par­ent list by the group.²³

³Names that do not ap­pear on any elect­or­al list per­tain­ing to the con­stitu­ency are de­leted. …⁴

⁴Where there is a con­tra­dic­tion between the elect­or­al list des­ig­na­tion and the ref­er­ence num­ber, the elect­or­al list des­ig­na­tion shall take pre­ced­ence.

¹Bal­lot pa­pers are in­val­id if they

a.

do not con­tain the name of a can­did­ate stand­ing in the con­stitu­ency;

b.

are not of­fi­cial;

c.

have been com­pleted or altered oth­er than by hand;;

d.

con­tain de­fam­at­ory re­marks or ob­vi­ously ir­rel­ev­ant mark­ings;

e.¹

…

²The fol­low­ing shall be de­leted from the bal­lot pa­per:

a.

su­per­flu­ous re­pe­ti­tions if the name of a can­did­ate ap­pears more than twice on a bal­lot pa­per;

b.

all names of per­sons whose can­did­a­cies were de­clared in­val­id due to mul­tiple can­did­acy fol­low­ing the rec­ti­fic­a­tion of the can­did­ate lists.²

³If the bal­lot pa­per con­tains more names than there are seats to be al­loc­ated, the last pre-prin­ted names on the list that have not been ac­cu­mu­lated by hand shall be de­leted fol­lowed by the last names that have been ad­ded by hand.³

⁴Grounds for in­valid­ity or nullity that re­late to the can­ton­al pro­ced­ure (of­fi­cial vot­ing en­vel­ope or val­id­a­tion stamp, etc.) re­main re­served.⁴

⁵In the case of elec­tron­ic vot­ing pi­lot schemes, the le­gis­la­tion of each can­ton con­duct­ing such a scheme de­term­ines the re­quire­ments ac­cord­ing to which votes are val­idly cast and the grounds for in­valid­ity.⁵

Fol­low­ing the close of vot­ing, the can­tons shall es­tab­lish the fol­low­ing on the basis of the re­ports from the polling sta­tions:

a.

the num­ber of per­sons eli­gible to vote and the num­ber of per­sons who voted;

b.

the num­ber of val­id, in­val­id, and blank bal­lot pa­pers;

c.

the num­ber of votes that the in­di­vidu­al can­did­ates on each list have re­ceived (can­did­ate votes);

d.¹

the num­ber of ad­di­tion­al votes for each list (Art. 37);

e.²

the sum of the can­did­ate votes and ad­di­tion­al votes for the in­di­vidu­al lists (party votes);

f.

in re­spect of com­bined lists, the total of the votes cast in fa­vour of the group on the lists;

g.

the num­ber of blank votes.

¹Where not all of the man­dates have been al­loc­ated, the man­dates re­main­ing shall be al­loc­ated in­di­vidu­ally and one after the oth­er ac­cord­ing to the fol­low­ing rules:

a.

the num­ber of votes cast in fa­vour of each elect­or­al list is di­vided by a num­ber equi­val­ent to the num­ber of man­dates already al­loc­ated to that list plus one.

b.

the next man­date is al­loc­ated to the elect­or­al list that has the largest quo­tient.

c.

if more than one list is en­titled to the next man­date as they have the same quo­tient, then the next man­date is al­loc­ated to the list that achieved the highest re­mainder in the di­vi­sion ac­cord­ing to Art­icle 40 para­graph 2.

d.

if there are still two or more lists with the same right to the man­date, the man­date goes to the list that has ob­tained the highest num­ber of party votes.

e.

if more than one list still has the same right to the man­date, the first man­date is al­loc­ated to the list whose can­did­ate for the man­date has ob­tained the highest num­ber of votes.

f.

if more than one can­did­ate has ob­tained the same highest num­ber of votes, the man­date is al­loc­ated by draw­ing lots.

²This pro­ced­ure is re­peated un­til all the man­dates have been al­loc­ated.

¹Each group of com­bined lists shall ini­tially be treated as a single list for the pur­poses of al­loc­at­ing man­dates.

²Man­dates shall be al­loc­ated to the in­di­vidu­al lists with­in a group ac­cord­ing to Art­icles 40 and 41. Art­icle 37 para­graphs 2 and 2^bis re­main re­served.¹

¹On the basis of the num­ber of man­dates ob­tained, those can­did­ates from each list that have re­ceived the highest num­ber of votes shall be elec­ted.

²The can­did­ates that are not elec­ted shall act as re­place­ment can­did­ates in the or­der of the num­ber of votes that they have ob­tained.

³Where two or more can­did­ates have re­ceived the same num­ber of votes, their or­der of pre­ced­ence shall be de­cided by draw­ing lots.

Where any list is al­loc­ated more man­dates than it has can­did­ates, a sup­ple­ment­ary elec­tion shall be held in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 56 in re­spect of the man­dates that can­not be al­loc­ated.

¹Where all the lists when taken to­geth­er do not con­tain more can­did­ates than there are man­dates to be al­loc­ated, the can­ton­al gov­ern­ment shall de­clare all the can­did­ates on the lists to be elec­ted.

²Where all the lists when taken to­geth­er con­tain few­er can­did­ates than there are man­dates to be al­loc­ated, sup­ple­ment­ary elec­tions shall be held in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 56 para­graph 3 in re­spect of the man­dates that can­not be al­loc­ated.

¹If there are no lists, per­sons eli­gible to vote may cast their vote for any per­son who is eli­gible for elec­tion. The per­sons who have ob­tained the highest num­bers of votes shall be elec­ted.

²Where a bal­lot pa­per con­tains more names than there are man­dates to be al­loc­ated, the last names on the pa­per shall be de­leted.¹

³The pro­vi­sions that ap­ply to con­stitu­en­cies that re­turn only one mem­ber also ap­ply by ana­logy.

¹In con­stitu­en­cies where only one mem­ber of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil is to be elec­ted, votes may be cast for any per­son who is eli­gible for elec­tion. The per­son who re­ceives the highest num­ber of votes shall be elec­ted. In the event of a tie, the res­ult shall be de­cided by draw­ing lots.

^1bisThe can­ton may pub­lish elec­tron­ic­ally and in the can­ton­al gaz­ette all can­did­a­cies that are no­ti­fied to the can­ton­al elect­or­al au­thor­ity by the forty-eighth day be­fore the elec­tion day. The pub­lished in­form­a­tion must as a min­im­um in­clude the can­did­ates:

a.

of­fi­cial sur­name and first names;

b.

name by which they are known in polit­ics or in every­day life;

c.

sex;

d.

home ad­dress in­clud­ing post­code;

e.

place and can­ton of ori­gin;

f.

party or polit­ic­al group af­fil­i­ation: and

g.

oc­cu­pa­tion.¹

²Can­ton­al le­gis­la­tion may provide for a ta­cit elec­tion where only one val­id nom­in­a­tion has been sub­mit­ted to the re­spons­ible can­ton­al au­thor­ity by 12.00 noon on the forty-eighth day (sev­enth Monday) pri­or to the elec­tion.²

The can­tons shall ar­range for a bal­lot pa­per to be de­livered to each per­son eli­gible to vote at least three weeks and no more than four weeks pri­or to the polling day.

¹Bal­lot pa­pers are deemed in­val­id if they

a.

con­tain the names of more than one per­son;

b.

are not of­fi­cial;

c.

have been com­pleted oth­er than by hand;

d.

con­tain de­fam­at­ory re­marks or ob­vi­ously ir­rel­ev­ant mark­ings;

e.¹

…

²Grounds for in­valid­ity or nullity that re­late to the can­ton­al pro­ced­ure (of­fi­cial vot­ing en­vel­ope, val­id­a­tion stamp, etc.) re­main re­served.²

³In the case of elec­tron­ic vot­ing pi­lot schemes, the le­gis­la­tion of each can­ton con­duct­ing such a scheme de­term­ines the re­quire­ments ac­cord­ing to which votes are val­idly cast and the grounds for in­valid­ity.³

¹If the pos­sib­il­ity of a ta­cit elec­tion is re­cog­nised un­der can­ton­al law, then the names of all can­did­ates nom­in­ated with­in the peri­od al­lowed must ap­pear on a pre-prin­ted list on the bal­lot pa­per.

²In or­der to vote, the voter shall per­son­ally place a cross in the field next to the name of the can­did­ate.

³The fol­low­ing are in­val­id:

a.

votes for can­did­ates whose names do not ap­pear on the pre-prin­ted list;

b.

bal­lot pa­pers on which a cross ap­pears next to more than one can­did­ate.

Art­icles 47-49 also ap­ply to by-elec­tions.

¹After the res­ults have been es­tab­lished, the can­ton­al gov­ern­ment shall im­me­di­ately in­form those elec­ted of their elec­tion in writ­ing and shall ad­vise the Fed­er­al Coun­cil of the names of those elec­ted.

²The can­ton shall pub­lish the res­ults ob­tained by each can­did­ate and, where ap­plic­able, each list in the of­fi­cial can­ton­al gaz­ette with­in eight days of the polling day at the latest, mak­ing ref­er­ence to the right to con­test the res­ult.¹

³The res­ults of gen­er­al, sup­ple­ment­ary and by-elec­tions shall be pub­lished in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette. They shall also be pub­lished in full in the on­line ver­sion of the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette.²³

⁴The can­ton shall send the elec­tion re­port to the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery im­me­di­ately fol­low­ing the ex­piry of the peri­od al­lowed for lodging an ap­peal con­test­ing the elec­tion (Art. 77 para. 2). The bal­lot pa­pers shall be de­livered to the loc­a­tion ap­poin­ted by the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery with­in ten days of the ex­piry of the peri­od al­lowed for lodging an ap­peal con­test­ing the elec­tion.⁴

¹The con­stitu­ent sit­ting of the newly elec­ted Na­tion­al Coun­cil shall take place on the sev­enth Monday fol­low­ing the elec­tion. At this sit­ting, the first task shall be the val­id­a­tion of the res­ults of the elec­tion. The Na­tion­al Coun­cil shall be held to be con­sti­tuted as soon as the elec­tion of at least a ma­jor­ity of its mem­bers has been de­clared val­id. The Na­tion­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the pro­ced­ur­al rules in its reg­u­la­tions.¹

²Any per­son bear­ing an elec­tion cer­ti­fic­ate from their can­ton­al gov­ern­ment shall have the right to a seat and to a vote at this sit­ting, but not to vote on the valid­ity of their own elec­tion.

³In the event of sub­sti­tu­tion or of by-elec­tions or sup­ple­ment­ary elec­tions, a newly elec­ted mem­ber may par­ti­cip­ate in the sit­ting only if their elec­tion has been de­clared to be val­id.²

No­tice of resig­na­tion from the Na­tion­al Coun­cil must be giv­en in writ­ing to the Pres­id­ent of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil.

¹Where a mem­ber of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil resigns be­fore the ex­piry of the le­gis­lat­ive peri­od, the can­ton­al gov­ern­ment shall de­clare the first sub­sti­tute from the same list to be elec­ted.

²If a sub­sti­tute can­not or does not wish to as­sume of­fice, the next sub­sti­tute on the elect­or­al list shall be in­vited to as­sume of­fice in their place.

¹Where a seat can­not be filled by sub­sti­tu­tion, three-fifths of the sig­nat­or­ies to the list (Art. 24 para­graph 1) on which the mem­ber of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil who has resigned is entered, or the com­mit­tee of the can­ton­al party (Art. 24 para­graph 3) that sub­mit­ted the said list shall have the right to sub­mit a fur­ther nom­in­a­tion.¹

²The can­did­ate who is nom­in­ated in the fore­go­ing man­ner shall be de­clared by the can­ton­al gov­ern­ment to be elec­ted in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 45, fol­low­ing the rec­ti­fic­a­tion of any de­fi­cien­cies in the can­did­ate list (Art. 22 and Art. 29) and without a bal­lot be­ing held.²

³Where the right to nom­in­ate a can­did­ate is not ex­er­cised, a pop­u­lar elec­tion shall be held.³ This elec­tion is based on the simple ma­jor­ity elec­tion sys­tem un­less more than one seat has to be filled, in which case the pro­vi­sions on the sys­tem of pro­por­tion­al rep­res­ent­a­tion ap­ply.

The le­gis­lat­ive peri­od of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil ends on the con­sti­tu­tion of the newly elec­ted Na­tion­al Coun­cil.

En­act­ments that are sub­ject to a man­dat­ory ref­er­en­dum shall be pub­lished fol­low­ing their ad­op­tion by the Fed­er­al As­sembly. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall or­der that a pop­u­lar vote be held.

The re­quest for a ref­er­en­dum must be sub­mit­ted to the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery be­fore ex­piry of the ref­er­en­dum peri­od, either with the sup­port of the num­ber of can­tons re­quired by the Con­sti­tu­tion or fur­nished with the re­quired num­ber of sig­na­tures and the cer­ti­fic­ates of eli­gib­il­ity to vote.

A re­quest for a ref­er­en­dum may not be with­drawn.

If the re­quest for a ref­er­en­dum is suc­cess­ful, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall or­der the or­gan­isa­tion of a pop­u­lar vote.

¹The sig­na­ture list (on forms, sheets of pa­per or cards) used by those re­quest­ing a ref­er­en­dum for the pur­pose of col­lect­ing sig­na­tures must con­tain the fol­low­ing in­form­a­tion:¹

a.

the can­ton and the polit­ic­al com­mune in which the sig­nat­ory is eli­gible to vote;

b.

the title of the en­act­ment with the date of its ad­op­tion by the Fed­er­al As­sembly;

c.²

ref­er­ence to the fact that Any per­son who fals­i­fies the res­ult of a sig­na­ture list for a ref­er­en­dum (Art. 282 of the Swiss Crim­in­al Code, SCC³) or who of­fers or ac­cepts bribes in con­nec­tion with a sig­na­ture list (Art. 281 SCC) com­mits an of­fence.

²Where more than one re­quest for a ref­er­en­dum is sub­mit­ted for sig­na­ture, each re­quest shall be the sub­ject of a sep­ar­ate sig­na­ture list. Sig­na­ture lists for more than one re­quest for a ref­er­en­dum may ap­pear on the same page provided that it is pos­sible to sep­ar­ate each sig­na­ture list for the pur­pose of its sub­mis­sion.⁴

Any per­son who down­loads a sig­na­ture list for re­quest­ing a ref­er­en­dum that has been made avail­able on­line is re­spons­ible for en­sur­ing that the sig­na­ture list sat­is­fies all the form­al leg­al re­quire­ments.

¹The per­son eli­gible to vote must write their sur­name and first names by hand and legibly on the sig­na­ture list and add their hand­writ­ten sig­na­ture.¹

^1bisPer­sons eli­gible to vote who are un­able to write may have their name entered on a sig­na­ture list by a per­son eli­gible to vote of their choice. This per­son shall add their sig­na­ture to the name of the per­son who is un­able to write and pre­serves secrecy as to the con­tent of the in­struc­tions they have re­ceived.²

²The per­son eli­gible to vote must provide any fur­ther de­tails that are re­quired to es­tab­lish their iden­tity, such as their date of birth and ad­dress.³

³They may only sign the same re­quest for a ref­er­en­dum once.

¹The sig­na­ture lists may be sent con­tinu­ously but must be sent in good time pri­or to the ex­piry of the ref­er­en­dum peri­od to the of­fice that is re­spons­ible un­der can­ton­al law for the is­su­ing of cer­ti­fic­ates of eli­gib­il­ity to vote.¹

²The of­fice cer­ti­fies that the sig­nat­or­ies in the com­munes stated in the sig­na­ture list are eli­gible to vote on fed­er­al mat­ters, and re­turns the sig­na­ture lists to their senders without delay.

³The cer­ti­fic­ate must state in words or in fig­ures the num­ber of cer­ti­fied sig­na­tures; it must be dated, bear the hand­writ­ten sig­na­ture of the pub­lic of­fi­cial and in­dic­ate their of­fi­cial ca­pa­city by means of a stamp or ad­dendum.

⁴The eli­gib­il­ity to vote of the sig­nat­or­ies may be cer­ti­fied col­lect­ively for more than one sig­na­ture list.

¹The cer­ti­fic­ate of eli­gib­il­ity to vote shall be re­fused if the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 61 are not ful­filled.

²If a per­son eli­gible to vote has signed more than one sig­na­ture list, only one sig­na­ture is cer­ti­fied.

³The grounds for re­fus­al must be stated on the sig­na­ture list.

¹…²

²Sig­na­ture lists that have been sub­mit­ted are not re­turned and may not be in­spec­ted.

¹After ex­piry of the ref­er­en­dum peri­od, the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall es­tab­lish wheth­er the ref­er­en­dum re­quest lists con­tain the re­quired num­ber of val­id sig­na­tures. If less than half of the quor­um re­quired un­der the Con­sti­tu­tion has been achieved, a no­tice shall be pub­lished in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette stat­ing simply that the peri­od al­lowed for the col­lec­tion of sig­na­tures has ex­pired. If half or more of the re­quired quor­um has been achieved, the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall is­sue a rul­ing con­firm­ing wheth­er or not the re­quest for a ref­er­en­dum has been suc­cess­ful.¹

²The fol­low­ing are in­val­id:

a.²

sig­na­tures on lists that do not ful­fil the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 60;

b.³

sig­na­tures by per­sons whose eli­gib­il­ity to vote is not cer­ti­fied;

c.

sig­na­tures on lists that have been sub­mit­ted after ex­piry of the ref­er­en­dum peri­od.

³The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall pub­lish the rul­ing on the suc­cess of the ref­er­en­dum re­quest in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette to­geth­er with de­tails of the num­bers of val­id and in­val­id sig­na­tures for each can­ton.⁴

Un­less can­ton­al law provides oth­er­wise, the can­ton­al par­lia­ment shall de­cide wheth­er a ref­er­en­dum should be re­ques­ted by a can­ton.

The com­mu­nic­a­tion from the can­ton­al gov­ern­ment to the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall in­dic­ate:

a.

the title of the en­act­ment with the date of ad­op­tion by the Fed­er­al As­sembly;

b.

the pub­lic body that is re­quest­ing the pop­u­lar vote on be­half of the can­ton;

c.

the pro­vi­sions un­der can­ton­al law that reg­u­late the rights to re­quest a ref­er­en­dum;

d.

the date and res­ult of the vote on the de­cision to re­quest a ref­er­en­dum.

¹After ex­piry of the ref­er­en­dum peri­od, the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall es­tab­lish wheth­er the re­quest for the ref­er­en­dum has been sub­mit­ted by the re­quired num­ber of can­tons.²

²A re­quest for a ref­er­en­dum is de­clared in­val­id if:

a.

it has not been de­cided on and sub­mit­ted to the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery with­in the ref­er­en­dum peri­od;

b.

it has been de­cided on by a pub­lic body that is not com­pet­ent to do so;

c.

it is im­possible to identi­fy with any cer­tainty the fed­er­al en­act­ment in re­spect of which the pop­u­lar vote is be­ing re­ques­ted.

³The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall provide writ­ten no­ti­fic­a­tion of the rul­ing on the suc­cess or fail­ure of the re­quest for a ref­er­en­dum by the can­tons to the gov­ern­ments of all those can­tons that have re­ques­ted the ref­er­en­dum, and shall pub­lish the rul­ing in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette, giv­ing de­tails of the num­ber of val­id and in­val­id can­ton­al re­quests for a ref­er­en­dum.

¹The sig­na­ture list (on forms, sheets of pa­per or cards) that is used to col­lect sig­na­tures for a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive must con­tain the fol­low­ing in­form­a­tion:¹

a.

the can­ton and the polit­ic­al com­mune in which the sig­nat­ory is eli­gible to vote;

b.² the title and text of the ini­ti­at­ive, to­geth­er with the date of its pub­lic­a­tion in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette;

c.³

a with­draw­al clause with­in the mean­ing of Art­icle 73;

d.⁴ ref­er­ence to the fact that Any per­son who fals­i­fies the res­ult of a sig­na­ture col­lec­tion for a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive (Art. 282 SCC⁵) or who of­fers or ac­cepts bribes in con­nec­tion with a sig­na­ture col­lec­tion (Art. 281 SCC) com­mits an of­fence;

e.⁶ the names and ad­dresses of at least sev­en and no more than 27 au­thors of the ini­ti­at­ive, all of whom must be eli­gible to vote (the ini­ti­at­ive com­mit­tee).

²Art­icle 60 para­graph 2 also ap­plies to pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ives.⁷

¹The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall de­clare in a rul­ing be­fore the col­lec­tion of sig­na­tures is be­gun wheth­er the sig­na­ture list cor­res­ponds to the form pre­scribed by law.

²Where the title of an ini­ti­at­ive is mis­lead­ing, or if it con­tains com­mer­cial ad­vert­ising or per­son­al pub­li­city or gives rise to con­fu­sion, it shall be amended by the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery.¹

³The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall ex­am­ine the texts of the ini­ti­at­ive in all of­fi­cial lan­guages to en­sure that they cor­res­pond and shall un­der­take any trans­la­tion work there­on that is re­quired.

⁴The title and text of the ini­ti­at­ive, to­geth­er with the names of the au­thors shall be pub­lished in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette.²

Any per­son who down­loads a sig­na­ture list for a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive that has been made avail­able on­line is re­spons­ible for en­sur­ing that the sig­na­ture list sat­is­fies all the form­al leg­al re­quire­ments.

The pro­vi­sions laid down for ref­er­en­dums re­lat­ing to sig­na­tures (Art. 61), the cer­ti­fic­ate of eli­gib­il­ity to vote (Art. 62) and the re­fus­al of a cer­ti­fic­ate of eli­gib­il­ity to vote (Art. 63) ap­ply by ana­logy to pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ives.

¹The sig­na­ture lists for a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive must be sub­mit­ted to­geth­er 18 months at the latest from the date of pub­lic­a­tion of the text of the ini­ti­at­ive in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette.

²Sig­na­ture lists that have been sub­mit­ted are not re­turned and may not be in­spec­ted.

¹After ex­piry of the peri­od al­lowed for the col­lec­tion of sig­na­tures, the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall es­tab­lish wheth­er the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive has ob­tained the re­quired num­ber of val­id sig­na­tures. If less than half of the quor­um re­quired un­der the Con­sti­tu­tion has been achieved, a no­tice shall be pub­lished in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette stat­ing simply that the peri­od al­lowed for the col­lec­tion of sig­na­tures has ex­pired. If half or more of the re­quired quor­um has been achieved, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue a rul­ing con­firm­ing wheth­er or not the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive has been suc­cess­ful.¹

²The fol­low­ing are in­val­id:

a.

sig­na­tures on lists that do not ful­fil the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 68;

b.

sig­na­tures of sig­nat­or­ies whose eli­gib­il­ity to vote is not cer­ti­fied;

c.

sig­na­tures on lists that have been sub­mit­ted after the peri­od al­lowed for the col­lec­tion of sig­na­tures.²

³The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall pub­lishes the rul­ing on the suc­cess of the ini­ti­at­ive in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette to­geth­er with de­tails of the num­bers of val­id and in­val­id sig­na­tures for each can­ton.

¹A pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive may be with­drawn by its ini­ti­at­ive com­mit­tee. The de­clar­a­tion of with­draw­al is bind­ing provided it has been signed by an ab­so­lute ma­jor­ity of the mem­bers of the ini­ti­at­ive com­mit­tee who are still eli­gible to vote.

²The with­draw­al of a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive is per­mit­ted up to the day on which the Fed­er­al Coun­cil fixes a date for a pop­u­lar vote. The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall in­vite the ini­ti­at­ive com­mit­tee to give no­tice of its de­cision and shall spe­cify a short peri­od of time with­in which the com­mit­tee must do so.

³An ini­ti­at­ive in the form of a gen­er­al pro­pos­al may not be with­drawn after its ap­prov­al by the Fed­er­al As­sembly.

¹The with­draw­al of a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive is nor­mally un­con­di­tion­al.

²However, if Fed­er­al As­sembly has ap­proved an in­dir­ect counter-pro­pos­al in the form of a fed­er­al act at the latest at the same time as the fi­nal vote on the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive, the ini­ti­at­ive com­mit­tee may with­draw its pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive un­der the ex­press con­di­tion that the in­dir­ect counter-pro­pos­al is not re­jec­ted in a pop­u­lar vote.

³The con­di­tion­al with­draw­al be­comes ef­fect­ive as soon as:

a.

the dead­line for re­quest­ing a ref­er­en­dum against the in­dir­ect counter-pro­pos­al has ex­pired without a re­quest be­ing filed;

b.

a leg­ally bind­ing de­clar­a­tion has been made that the re­quest for a ref­er­en­dum against the in­dir­ect counter-pro­pos­al has failed; or

c.

the Fed­er­al Coun­cil has, in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 15 para­graph 1, val­id­ated the res­ult of the pop­u­lar vote where a re­quest for a ref­er­en­dum has suc­ceeded and the People have voted for the in­dir­ect counter-pro­pos­al.

¹If the text of a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive fails to com­ply with the prin­ciples of co­he­sion of sub­ject mat­ter (Art. 139 para. 3 and Art. 194 para. 2 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion) or con­sist­ency of form (Art. 139 para. 3 and Art. 194 para. 3 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion), or if the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive vi­ol­ates man­dat­ory pro­vi­sions of in­ter­na­tion­al law (Art. 139 para. 3, Art. 193 para. 4 and Art. 194 para. 2 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion), the Fed­er­al As­sembly shall de­clare the ini­ti­at­ive to be in­val­id as a whole or in part, to the ex­tent that this is re­quired.²

²There is co­he­sion of sub­ject mat­ter in a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive when there is an in­trins­ic con­nec­tion between the in­di­vidu­al parts of the ini­ti­at­ive.

³There is con­sist­ency of form in a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive when the ini­ti­at­ive is couched ex­clus­ively in the form of a gen­er­al pro­pos­al or of a spe­cif­ic draft pro­vi­sion.

¹The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall sub­mit the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive to a pop­u­lar vote with­in ten months of the fi­nal vote there­on in the Fed­er­al As­sembly, but at the latest ten months after ex­piry of the stat­utory peri­od al­lowed for Par­lia­ment to con­sider the pop­u­lar vote.

²In the event of a con­di­tion­al with­draw­al in fa­vour of an in­dir­ect counter-pro­pos­al, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall sub­mit the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive to the vote of the People and the can­tons with­in ten months of its val­id­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 15 para­graph 1 of the res­ult of the pop­u­lar vote re­ject­ing the in­dir­ect counter-pro­pos­al.

³If a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive in the form of a gen­er­al pro­pos­al is ap­proved, the draft amend­ment to the Con­sti­tu­tion shall be sub­mit­ted to a vote of the People and the can­tons with­in ten months of the fi­nal vote in the Fed­er­al As­sembly.

^3bisThe time lim­its in para­graphs 1-3 shall be ex­ten­ded by six months if they be­gin less than ten months but more than three months be­fore the next gen­er­al elec­tion to the Na­tion­al Coun­cil.²

⁴The pro­ced­ure for deal­ing with a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive to be fol­lowed by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the Fed­er­al As­sembly and the dead­lines that must be ob­served are gov­erned by the pro­vi­sions of the Par­lia­ment Act of 13 Decem­ber 2002³.

¹Where the Fed­er­al As­sembly de­cides to sub­mit a counter-pro­pos­al, three ques­tions are put to the voters on the same bal­lot pa­per. Each per­son who is eli­gible to vote may state, without re­ser­va­tion:

a.

wheth­er they prefer the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive to the law cur­rently ap­plic­able;

b.

wheth­er they prefer the counter-pro­pos­al to the law cur­rently ap­plic­able;

c.

which of the two pro­pos­als should be­come law where both the People and the can­tons prefer both pro­pos­als to the law cur­rently ap­plic­able.

²The ab­so­lute ma­jor­ity shall be es­tab­lished sep­ar­ately for each ques­tion. Ques­tions that have not been answered shall be dis­reg­arded.

³Where both the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive and the counter-pro­pos­al are ac­cep­ted, the res­ult of the third ques­tion shall be de­cis­ive. The pro­pos­al that se­cures a high­er num­ber of pop­u­lar votes and a high­er num­ber of can­ton­al votes shall be­come law.

¹A polit­ic­al party may be of­fi­cially re­gistered with the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery:

a.

if it has the leg­al form of an as­so­ci­ation in terms of Art­icles 60-79 of the Swiss Civil Code ¹; and

b.

if it is rep­res­en­ted in the same name by at least one mem­ber in the Na­tion­al Coun­cil or by at least three mem­bers in each of any three can­ton­al par­lia­ments.

²For entry in the Re­gister of Polit­ic­al Parties, the as­so­ci­ation shall file the fol­low­ing doc­u­ments and in­form­a­tion with the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery:

a.

a copy of its leg­ally val­id con­sti­tu­tion;

b.

the name and headquar­ters of the party in ac­cord­ance with the con­sti­tu­tion;

c.

the names and ad­dresses of the pres­id­ent and sec­ret­ary of the na­tion­al party.

³The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery shall main­tain a re­gister of the in­form­a­tion filed by polit­ic­al parties. This shall be a pub­lic re­gister. The Fed­er­al As­sembly shall en­act an or­din­ance to reg­u­late the de­tails of the re­gister.

¹An ap­peal may be filed with the can­ton­al gov­ern­ment:

a.¹

in re­spect of a vi­ol­a­tion of the pro­vi­sions on vot­ing rights in terms of Art­icles 2-4, Art­icle 5 para­graphs 3 and 6 and Art­icles 62 and 63 (ap­peal on a mat­ter re­lated to vot­ing rights);

b.²

in re­spect of ir­reg­u­lar­it­ies at pop­u­lar votes (ap­peal on a mat­ter re­lated to pop­u­lar votes);

c.

in re­spect of ir­reg­u­lar­it­ies in the pre­par­a­tion for and con­duct of elec­tions to the Na­tion­al Coun­cil (ap­peal on a mat­ter re­lated to elec­tions).

²The ap­peal must be filed by re­gistered mail with­in three days of the grounds for ap­peal be­ing as­cer­tained, and at the latest on the third day fol­low­ing pub­lic­a­tion of the res­ults in the of­fi­cial can­ton­al gaz­ette.³

¹The ap­peal pe­ti­tion must con­tain a brief sum­mary of the facts of the case in jus­ti­fic­a­tion of the ap­peal.

²…¹

¹The can­ton­al gov­ern­ment shall is­sue a de­cision on an ap­peal with­in ten days of re­ceipt of the ap­peal pe­ti­tion.

²If the can­ton­al gov­ern­ment es­tab­lishes, wheth­er on the basis of the ap­peal or in the course of its own du­ties, that there have been ir­reg­u­lar­it­ies, it shall is­sue the or­ders re­quired to rem­edy the de­fi­cien­cies es­tab­lished, if pos­sible pri­or to the con­clu­sion of the elec­tion or pop­u­lar vote pro­ced­ure.

^2bisThe can­ton­al gov­ern­ment shall re­ject any ap­peals on mat­ters re­lat­ing to pop­u­lar votes or elec­tions without con­duct­ing a de­tailed in­vest­ig­a­tion if the ir­reg­u­lar­it­ies com­plained of are not suf­fi­cient either in their nature or in their ex­tent to have a ma­ter­i­al in­flu­ence on the res­ult of the vote as a whole.¹

³The can­ton­al gov­ern­ment shall give no­tice of its de­cision and any rul­ings is­sued in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 34-38 and 61 para­graph 2 of the Ad­min­is­trat­ive Pro­ced­ure Act ² and shall no­ti­fy the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery.³

¹An ap­peal may be filed with the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court against ap­peal de­cisions of the can­ton­al gov­ern­ment (Art. 77) in ac­cord­ance with the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court Act of 17 June 2005².

²An ap­peal to the Swiss Fed­er­al Su­preme Court shall also be per­mit­ted against rul­ings is­sued by the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery on the re­fus­al to make an entry in the Re­gister of Polit­ic­al Parties or on the fail­ure of a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive or of a re­quest for a ref­er­en­dum. No ap­peal shall be per­mit­ted against a simple no­tice in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette re­lat­ing to a clear fail­ure to achieve a quor­um in re­spect of a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive or re­quest for a ref­er­en­dum at fed­er­al level (Art. 66 para. 1 and Art. 72 para. 1).³

³The mem­bers of the ini­ti­at­ive com­mit­tee are also en­titled to ap­peal against rul­ings is­sued by the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery re­lat­ing to the form­al valid­ity of a sig­na­ture list (Art. 69 para. 1) and re­lat­ing to the title of an ini­ti­at­ive (Art. 69 para. 2).

In the ab­sence of any pro­vi­sions in this Act and the im­ple­ment­ing or­din­ances is­sued by the Con­fed­er­a­tion, can­ton­al law ap­plies. The pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Act of 16 Decem­ber 1943 on the Ad­min­is­tra­tion of Fed­er­al Justice are re­served¹.

¹The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may au­thor­ise can­ton­al gov­ern­ments to en­act pro­vi­sions that derog­ate from this Act for the pur­poses of as­cer­tain­ing the res­ults of elec­tions and pop­u­lar votes by us­ing tech­nic­al aids.¹

²Elec­tion and pop­u­lar vote pro­ced­ures that use tech­nic­al aids shall re­quire the ap­prov­al of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.²

¹No fees or costs may be charged for any ad­min­is­trat­ive pro­ced­ures car­ried out based on this Act. In the case of ap­peals lodged that are dilat­ory in their nature or that vi­ol­ate the prin­ciples of good faith, the costs may be im­posed on the ap­pel­lant.

²In pro­ceed­ings be­fore the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court, the ob­lig­a­tion to pay fees or costs is gov­erned by the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court Act of 17 June 2005².

¹The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may or­der that stat­ist­ic­al sur­veys be car­ried out in re­spect of elec­tions to the Na­tion­al Coun­cil or pop­u­lar votes.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall keep stat­ist­ics on fed­er­al elec­tions and pop­u­lar votes; these shall provide in­form­a­tion at com­mun­al, dis­trict and can­ton­al levels on:

a.

in the case of elec­tions: the num­ber of votes that the can­did­ates and elect­or­al lists re­ceived;

b.

in the case of votes: the num­ber of votes in fa­vour of the pro­pos­als be­ing voted on.¹

^1bisThe Fed­er­al Coun­cil may or­der ad­di­tion­al stat­ist­ic­al sur­veys on the elec­tions to the Na­tion­al Coun­cil and on pop­u­lar votes.²

²It may, after con­sult­ing the rel­ev­ant can­ton­al gov­ern­ment, provide for the votes in se­lec­ted com­munes to be sep­ar­ated ac­cord­ing to sex and age groups.

³No breach of vot­ing secrecy in con­nec­tion with a stat­ist­ic­al sur­veys shall be per­mit­ted.

…¹

The fol­low­ing acts are re­pealed:

a.

The Fed­er­al Act of 19 Ju­ly 1872¹ on Fed­er­al Elec­tions and Pop­u­lar Votes;

b.

the Fed­er­al Act of 17 June 1874² on Pop­u­lar Votes on Fed­er­al Acts and Fed­er­al De­crees;

c.

the Fed­er­al Act of 23 March 1962³ on the Pro­ced­ure for a Re­quest for a Pop­u­lar Ini­ti­at­ive on the Re­vi­sion of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion (Ini­ti­at­ive Act);

d.

the Fed­er­al Act of 25 June 1965⁴ on the In­tro­duc­tion of Sim­pli­fied Vot­ing in Fed­er­al Elec­tions and Pop­u­lar Votes;

e.

the Fed­er­al Act of 8 March 1963⁵ on the Dis­tri­bu­tion of Seats in the Na­tion­al Coun­cil among the Can­tons;

f.

the Fed­er­al Act of 14 Feb­ru­ary 1919⁶ on the Elec­tion of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil.

¹This Act does not ap­ply to any mat­ters or ap­peals that re­late to elec­tions or pop­u­lar votes that have taken place pri­or to its com­ing in­to force. The fore­go­ing also ap­plies to ref­er­en­dums and pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ives that have been sub­mit­ted pri­or to its com­ing in­to force. In such cases, the pre­vi­ous law ap­plies.

²On ex­piry of 18 months from the date on which this Act comes in­to force, sig­na­ture lists shall be ac­cep­ted only if they com­ply with the pro­vi­sions of this Act.

³…¹

⁴…²

The new law ap­plies to fed­er­al pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ives that are pending on com­mence­ment of the Amend­ment of 25 Septem­ber 2009 to this Act.

¹The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions.

²The can­ton­al im­ple­ment­ing le­gis­la­tion shall re­quire the ap­prov­al of the Con­fed­er­a­tion in or­der to be val­id¹. The can­ton­al le­gis­la­tion must be en­acted with­in 18 months of the ad­op­tion of this Act by the Fed­er­al As­sembly.

¹This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

²The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the date on which this Act comes in­to force.