Here you will learn in eight steps how to launch a federal popular initiative and what to look out for.
The first thing you need to do is form a committee. The initiative committee must have at least 7 and no more than 27 members, who each must be eligible to vote in Switzerland. Swiss citizens living abroad who are eligible to vote can also be members of the committee.
Next, inform the Federal Chancellery about the planned initiative. It will give you all the information on how to proceed. The Federal Chancellery will also provide you with support in meeting the formal and legal requirements.
Federal Chancellery
Political Rights Section
Bundeshaus West
3003 Bern
Tel. +41 58 462 48 02
spr@bk.admin.ch
You can either formulate the initiative as a general proposal or submit a draft of the constitutional text to the Federal Chancellery. The Federal Chancellery will arrange for the text to be translated into the official Swiss languages.
Keep the following in mind: the proposal in the initiative must not lead to any violation of binding international law, e.g. the ban on torture or slavery. In addition, the initiative must not cover several matters that are unrelated to each other; the law talks of ‹cohesion of subject matter›.
Parliament may declare the initiative invalid if these requirements are not met.
Next, prepare a signature form. The form must contain the title and text of the initiative and the names and addresses of all the committee members. The date on which the collection period begins and certain other details must also be provided.
The Federal Chancellery checks the validity of the signature forms.
As soon as the initiative has been published in the Federal Gazette, you can start collecting signatures. You have 18 months to collect at least 100,000 signatures, have them certified and submit them to the Federal Chancellery.
In order to be sure that the initiative is put to a vote, you should collect more than 100,000 signatures. Experience has shown that there are always some signatures that are invalid.
Anyone with the right to vote in Switzerland can sign. This also includes Swiss voters who live abroad.
The following applies to anyone who signs the form:
You must enter your first name and surname by hand and then sign the form. You must also provide your date of birth and address.
You must also indicate the canton and commune where you are eligible to vote. It is important that a separate signature form is used for each commune. This is because the signatures on the forms are subsequently checked by the communes.
Before you submit the signatures to the Federal Chancellery, you must have them checked by the communes. The communes must certify that the signatures are valid.
The communes check whether the persons who have signed the form are entered in the electoral register and whether anyone has signed more than once.
Certifying all the signatures takes time. As a consequence, you should send the signature forms to the communes on an ongoing basis during the collection period.
After 18 months at the latest, you must submit the certified signatures to the Federal Chancellery. You will find all the information you need on submitting the signature lists in the related factsheet.
The Federal Chancellery also checks the signatures submitted while it is counting them. If at least 100,000 valid signatures have been submitted, then the initiative will be put to a vote.
It may be years after the signatures have been submitted before the vote is held, as the Federal Council and Parliament have to deliberate on the initiative. In some cases, they also draw up an alternative to the initiative.
The Federal Council must announce the date of the vote at least four months in advance.
If a majority of voters and a majority of the cantons vote in favour of the initiative, then the Constitution will be amended.