Swiss Abroad elect representatives online for first time

Keystone-SDA

Swiss citizens in 50 countries used electronic voting for the first time to elect representatives to the Council of the Swiss Abroad for the 2025-2029 legislative. The Organisation of the Swiss Abroad (OSA) hopes this will make the council more representative.

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The UniVote tool developed by the Bern University of Applied Sciences for electronic direct voting also led to an increased voter turnout in individual constituencies, the OSA said on Friday.

In Australia, for example, 0.1% of Swiss citizens living abroad elected their delegates to the Council of the Swiss Abroad (CSA) before the introduction of direct electronic voting. Thanks to direct online voting, voter turnout has now risen to 5.8%, according to OSA.

A total of 13,500 Swiss citizens abroad took part in the direct online elections. The OSA now intends to further expand the online direct voting system. The aim is to further strengthen internal transparency and democracy as well as the legitimacy of the CSA, it said.

The “Parliament of the Fifth Switzerland”, as the CSA is also known, is the highest body of the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad and is elected every four years.

The Swiss Abroad are divided into 55 constituencies worldwide. Of these, 13, made up of around 50 countries, held direct electronic elections this year. Around 243,000 people are registered in the 13 constituencies.

The electronic vote ran until May 11. The election results will be confirmed in August, the OSA said. By then, the remaining delegates, who are still elected in the traditional way by the Swiss associations, will also have been determined.

Translated from German by DeepL/sb

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