Canton Aargau rejects lowering voting age to 16

Aargau voters clearly reject voting age 16 Keystone-SDA

Voters in the Swiss canton of Aargau have rejected a people’s initiative to lower the official age for voting from 18 to 16.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The population in the canton rejected the initiative with a majority of 79.7%, with a turnout of just under 42%, Aargau authorities said on Sunday.

The initiative proposed to amend the cantonal constitution by allowing Swiss citizens over the age of 16 to vote at cantonal and municipal (local) level. In order to be elected to office, candidates would still have to have been of legal age, i.e. 18.

The project was launched by a committee made of representatives from numerous young parties, with the exception of the Swiss People’s Party (right-wing).

+ Should 16-year-olds be allowed to vote? Have your say

The government, parliament and conservative parties in Aargau all rejected the initiative. They argued that the age of majority for civil and political issues should not be separated.

The voting age at local, cantonal and federal level should meanwhile all be the same, they argued.

Supporters of the initiative, notably from the left, said the aim was to strengthen political participation. Young people can be trusted to contribute more to the political scene, they argued; after all, they have to live the longest time with current political decision.

The exception: canton Glarus

Following the no vote in Aargau, Glarus is still the only one of the 26 Swiss cantons to allow 16-year-olds to vote, after it approved a lowering of the age in May 2007.

In canton Lucerne, a constitutional initiative in favour of a voting age of 16 is currently pending. In Graubünden and Appenzell Outer Rhodes, similar constitutional amendments are also planned. And according to the umbrella organisation of Swiss youth parliaments, ideas are also pending in Basel City and Ticino.

In May 2022, 64% of the population in Zurich rejected lowering the voting age to 16. Four months later, Bern did the same – with 67% of voters saying no.

Adapted from German by DeepL/dos

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].