Swiss Review 2/2019

Swiss Review / March 2019 / No.2 27 Federal and cantonal popular votes – everything in one app The Confederation and the cantons have launched VoteInfo – a new app that provides you with official explanatory informa- tion on federal and cantonal popular votes and allows you to keep track of results via smartphone. The popular vote of 10 February 2019 marked the app’s debut. Supplementing the voting papers that are sent to all eligible voters as well as the in- formation that is available on federal gov- ernment and cantonal websites, the new app nowmeans that you can consult all the official explanatory information on the forthcoming issues for several weeks before each popular vote – all froma single source. The app also contains details of previous votes. Results available from noon But that’s not all. On voting Sundays, Vo- teInfowill beginpublishing all the results of federal and cantonal popular votes from 12 p.m. onwards (Swiss time) for every com- mune and canton as well as for the whole of Switzerland. Automatic notifications VoteInfo offers another advantage in that you can set up push notifications to appear automatically whenever the app has new content, e.g. when new explanatory infor- mation or videos are published, or when the final results are announced on voting Sunday. The newapp not only contains explanatory information and results, but it can also be adapted to your preferences. For example, it allows you to bookmark content that is specific to your own canton. Available in four languages The Federal Chancellery developed the VoteInfo app in partnership with the Fed- eral Statistical Office (FSO) and Canton Zurich. The latter had previously launched its own dedicated “Züri stimmt” app, the contents of which have now been inte- grated into VoteInfo. Available in Switzer- land’s four official languages (German, French, Italian and Romansh), the app works on iOS and Android and can be downloaded from the App Store or via Google Play free of charge. Further improvements The federal authorities and the cantons in- tend to continue developing VoteInfo. For example, one future objective is to include information on communal votes. Federal votes The Federal Council determines voting pro- posals at least four months before the voting date. The following proposalswill be put to the People on 19 May 2019: ■ ■ Federal Act of 28 September 2018 on Tax Reform and OASI (AHV-IV) Funding ■ ■ Federal Decree of 28 September 2018 on the Approval and Implementation of the Ex- change of Notes between Switzerland and the EU on the adoption of Directive (EU) 2017/853 amending the EU Weapons Directive (Devel- opment of the Schengen acquis) Other voting dates in 2019: 20 October, 24 November Everything you need to know about the pro- posals (voting pamphlets, committees, rec- ommendations by Parliament and the Federal Council, electronic voting, etc.) is available at www.admin.ch/votes. For information about the National Council elections of 20 October 2019, visit www.ch.ch/en/elections2019 . Popular initiatives The following federal popular initiative had been launched by the time of going to press (deadline for the collection of signatures in brackets): ■ ■ “Stop arms exports to countries engaged in civil war (Corrective Initiative)” (11/6/2020) The list of pending popular initiatives is avail- able in German at www.bk.admin.ch > Poli- tische Rechte > Volksinititativen > Hängige Volksinitativen Responsible for the FDFA official communications: Simone Flubacher, Relations with the Swiss Abroad Effingerstrasse 27, 3003 Berne, Switzerland Tel. +41 800 24 7 365 or +41 58 465 33 33 www.eda.admin.ch, email: helpline@eda.admin.ch