The Swiss government has granted three cantons licences to resume trials with online voting in federal votes, notably for the Swiss Abroad, it said on Friday.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA/jc
Italiano
it
Riprendono le prove di voto elettronico per le prossime votazioni
Basel City, St Gallen and Thurgau will be able to conduct online voting for a limited part of the electorate. The authorisation includes the popular vote scheduled for June 18 this year. It runs up to and including the popular vote on May 18, 2025, according to a government press releaseExternal link.
Online voting is to be available to Swiss voters abroad who are registered in any of the three cantons that have applied for a licence. Basel City also allows Swiss citizens with a disability to vote online. In St Gallen, a limited number of Swiss voters from communes offering e-voting can also register to vote online.
The Organisation of Swiss Abroad External link(OSA) hailed the decision. Its director Ariane Rustichelli called it “a breath of hope and a strong positive signal for the 220,000 Swiss abroad who are registered to vote”. She noted a drop in voting turnout of Swiss Abroad since the e-voting trials were stopped four years ago. “June 18 will be a date not to be missed. A new setback would be a serious blow to confidence in this voting channel,” she told SWI swissinfo.ch.
For the first vote in June 2023, the cantons asked that a total of around 65,000 voters be allowed to take part in the trials, or around 1.2% of all Swiss voters.
Previous e-voting trials were halted because of security concerns. The government says its latest decision will allow the cantons with licences to use Swiss Post’s new online system for the first time. It says the system “has been examined in a number of steps by independent experts and by the public in a bug bounty programme and a public intrusion test” and that “the system and its operation have been improved to such an extent that it is possible to use it within the limited scope of the approved trials”.
For federal parliamentary elections in October this year the government reminds cantons that they need a basic licence from the federal government to conduct e-voting. The cantons can decide whether or not to apply for such a licence.
Rustichelli said the OSA was confident that at least the cantons of Basel City, Thurgau and St Gallen would apply for authorisation for the federal elections on October 22.
Macron will attend Swiss summit on Ukraine, says Zelensky
This content was published on
French President Emmanuel Macron will attend the peace conference on Ukraine at the Swiss Bürgenstock resort next month, according to Volodymyr Zelensky.
Top politician tells ‘corrupt’ Eurovision to stay away from Bern
This content was published on
A social media post by the president of Bern’s cantonal government critical of the Eurovision Song Contest has created waves and will be discussed in the cantonal parliament.
Swiss centre records over 200 victims of human trafficking
This content was published on
Last year 317 people took part in a protection programme run by the Specialist Unit for Trafficking in Women and Women’s Migration (FIZ) in German-speaking Switzerland.
This content was published on
The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and partners are opening a field hospital in southern Gaza on Tuesday.
Lack of smartphone sustainability in Switzerland hits environment
This content was published on
Almost half of all Swiss citizens hang on to their old smartphones, tablets and laptops, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
Police clear out pro-Palestinian students protesting in Geneva
This content was published on
The police intervened early on Tuesday to dislodge pro-Palestinian students who had been occupying the University of Geneva for almost a week.
New gel developed in Zurich renders alcohol harmless
This content was published on
A newly developed gel composed of whey proteins breaks down alcohol in the body and could reduce its harmful and intoxicating effects in humans.
Pro-Palestine protests extend to Basel and Fribourg universities
This content was published on
Demonstrators called for an academic boycott of all Israeli institutions and disassociation with Chaim Weizmann, the first Israeli president.
This content was published on
The Swiss government plans to relaunch limited trials of electronic voting 18 months after suspending such schemes due to security flaws.
This content was published on
The controversial issue of e-voting is back: Swiss Post, which had halted the development of a project in July 2019, now plans a platform ready for testing by 2021.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.