National Council committee wants to stem the flood of lists in elections
Published: Friday, Apr 26th 2024, 17:50
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The relevant National Council committee is calling for reforms to the Swiss political system. For example, the flood of lists in elections and the flood of motions in parliament should be curbed. The Federal Council should also have to adhere to new guidelines when determining votes.
The National Council's Political Institutions Committee (SPK-N) has launched corresponding parliamentary initiatives, as announced by the parliamentary services on Friday. The sister committee of the Council of States will decide on this next.
If the SPK-N has its way, a new method of allocating seats is to be introduced from the 2031 National Council elections, namely the Sainte-Laguë method. This would increase the equality of success value of votes and would make list combinations superfluous. In addition, the number of sub-list combinations should be limited. These concerns received a clear majority of 16 votes to 9.
No initiatives during special sessions
By a narrower margin of 13 votes to 12, the committee decided that the Federal Council should adhere to stricter guidelines when determining which proposals should be put to the vote on which day. Accordingly, the date of submission of popular initiatives and referendums and the date of the final vote in the Federal Assembly should determine the allocation of a bill to a specific voting date.
According to the Commission, it is unacceptable for the Federal Council to put bills to the vote earlier or later in response to tactical considerations or pressure from interest groups.
The National Council Committee also wants to combat the flood of motions in Parliament. In future, motions, postulates and interpellations will not be allowed to be submitted during special sessions. The National Council's rules of procedure are to be amended accordingly. However, the SPK-N rejected a quota of motions per member of the Council.
No transparency in signature collections
The SPK-N continued to speak out against new disclosure requirements for signature collections. The disclosure requirements in force since 2022 for the financing of voting and election campaigns were sufficient. The National Council will next decide on the corresponding parliamentary initiative by SP National Councillor Nadine Masshardt (BE).
The same applies to a parliamentary initiative by National Councillor Balthasar Glättli (Greens/ZH). The SPK-N clearly rejected his request to create a committee to examine the integrity of statements made during voting campaigns.
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