Swiss Review 1/2019

Swiss Review / January 2019 / No.1 23 OSA news E-Voting is the way to uphold the voting right of the “Fifth Switzerland” Many Swiss citizens living abroad are only able to participate in federal elections and votes with the help of e-voting. For this reason, the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad, in its petition submitted on 30 November 2018, demands that everyone in the “Fifth Switzerland” should be able to vote electronically by 2021. The OSA Executive Board and directors in front of the Federal Palace in Berne on the day the petition was submitted, holding a huge USB stick repre- senting the importance of e-voting. Photo: Adrian Moser The petition was well received around the globe: OSA was able to submit 11,492 signatures collected online from 150 countries to the Fed- eral Chancellery on 30 November. This figure corresponds to almost seven percent of the 172, 000 Swiss Abroad included in an electoral reg- ister (as of March 2018) and under- lines the importance of the issue for the “Fifth Switzerland”. The core de- mand of the broadly supported peti- tion addressed to Parliament and the Federal Council is that in future – namely by 2021 – all Swiss voters liv- ing abroad should be able to vote elec- tronically. For many people, e-voting is often the only voting method that allows them to take part in votes and elections within the voting period. This is because documents sent by post often arrive too late. Through the petition, OSA is also opposing the growing criticism of e-voting. The Canton of Geneva has only just decided to abandon its e-voting system by February 2020 at the latest (see page 31). From OSA’s point of view, this is regrettable be- cause the security of the system was never in question. The decision taken in Geneva was solely based on finan- cial considerations. It is therefore also regrettable that it was not possible to find a solutionwith the Federal Chan- cellery and other cantons. OSA be- lieves that it is important that the fed- eral government and the cantons also commit themselves to technological development in order to guarantee the security of the system - especially its individual and universal verifia- bility. (ASO) educationsuisse Tel .+41 31 356 61 04 Fax+41 31 356 61 01 info@educationsuisse.ch www .educationsuisse. ch Organisation of the Swiss Abroad (OSA) Alpenstrasse 26 CH-3006 Berne Tel. +41 31 356 61 00 Fax +41 31 356 61 01 info@aso.ch www.aso.ch www.revue.ch www.swisscommunity.org Our partners: Foundation for Young Swiss Abroad Tel .+41 31 356 6116 Fax+41 31 356 61 01 info@sjas.ch www.sjas.ch