Ausserrhoder reject drastic territorial reform
Published: Sunday, Nov 26th 2023, 15:30
العودة إلى البث المباشر
The voters of Appenzell Ausserrhoden have voted in favor of making it easier for municipalities to merge. The government's more radical proposal for structural reform did not receive a majority. This would have reduced the number of municipalities from 20 to between 3 and 5.
At the cantonal referendum in Appenzell Ausserrhoden on Sunday, voters decided to amend the constitution. The 20 municipalities of the canton will no longer be listed by name in the cantonal constitution. This will make it easier to merge municipalities in future. Such mergers previously required a cantonal referendum.
With their decision, the people of Ausserrhoden endorsed a contingent motion prepared by the cantonal parliament on the popular initiative "Strong Ausserrhoden municipalities", which has since been withdrawn. 10,849 voters were in favor of this proposal with a voter turnout of 46.5 percent.
This was contrasted with the proposal for a more far-reaching reform of municipal structures, which was based on the example of the canton of Glarus. This reform proposed by the cantonal government was supported by 7024 voters. It therefore did not receive a majority.
Accordingly, the previous 20 municipalities should have been reduced to three to five municipalities in the canton. The main arguments were that this would allow the current challenges of a shortage of skilled workers in the administrations, vacant municipal council seats and digitalization to be met.
The current 20 municipalities in Appenzell Ausserrhoden have existed in this form for 274 years.
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