Federal Act
on Political Rights
(PRA)1

of 17 December 1976 (Status as of 23 October 2022)

1 Inserted by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014 (National Council elections), in force since 1 Nov. 2015 (AS 2015 543; BBl 2013 9217).


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Art. 5 Principles of voting

1 Of­fi­cial bal­lot pa­pers must be used for vot­ing. Can­ton­al vote re­cord­ing vouch­ers for elec­tron­ic data pro­cessing shall be re­garded as equi­val­ent to of­fi­cial bal­lot pa­pers.8

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

3 Per­sons who are eli­gible to vote may vote in per­son or by post.9 Vot­ing in elec­tron­ic vot­ing pi­lot schemes is gov­erned by Art­icle 8a.10

4 and 5 ...11

6 Votes 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.12

7 Vot­ing secrecy must be pre­served.

8Second sen­tence in­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 18 March 1994, in force since 15 Nov. 1994 (AS 1994 2414; BBl 1993 III 445).

9Amended by No I of the FA of 18 March 1994, in force since 15 Dec. 1994 (AS 1994 2414; BBl 1993 III 445).

10 Second sen­tence in­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 21 June 2002, in force since 1 Jan. 2003 (AS 2002 3193; BBl 2001 6401).

11Re­pealed by No I of the FA of 18 March 1994, with ef­fect from 15 Nov. 1994 (AS 1994 2414; BBl 1993 III 445).

12 Amended by No I 1 of the Fed­er­al Act of 23 March 2007 on the Amend­ment of the Fed­er­al Le­gis­la­tion on Polit­ic­al Rights, in force since 1 Jan. 2008 (AS 20074635; BBl 2006 5261).

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