Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Canton Vaud citizens will go to the polls, probably in 2011, to decide if foreigners who live in the canton should be given the right to vote. A popular referendum will be scheduled once officials verify the nearly 14,000 signatures gathered for the initiative. Only 12,000 signatures are required, so the item is likely to be added to the ballot.
Organizers of the initiative estimate that this would give 85,000 foreigners in the canton the right to vote.
The popular initiative would allow foreign residents who have lived in Switzerland for the past 10 years and in Vaud for three years, to have the same voting rights as citizens of the canton. They were given the right to participate in communal voting sessions in 2004, a rarity in Switzerland.
Links to other sites: Romandie, Le Nouvelliste (Valais), Swiss Migration News
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 19 January 2010.
Filed under: Politics
Tags: canton, cantonal vote, foreigners, popular initiative, residence, Switzerland, Vaud
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