Surely at least some of the foreigners could go at least half the way and learn the local language if they're so concerned about the goings on to exercise their right to vote?

....but, the local language here is not German.

I disagree, english is not an official language in CH, moreover for a large part of the foreigners it's not even their second language. If they added English, they'd do better to add Serbo-Croatian, Turkish and Portuguese first. Besides I believe learning the local language is more or less mandatory if you want to follow what is going on politically in Switzerland... not to mention common courtesy.

I meant it as a point of principle, not a point of detail... but if you wish, I agree the site should be translated in French too

This being an English forum, I'm surprised at the opposition.

OK, here's one with blue, pink, yellow and green sheep.

heres an interesting take on Tele Blocher .... www.tele-blocher.ch

so look to see some members at the Münsterplatz in Bern on the 6th October ...

I agree with ElJeFe, if you want the right to vote in Swiss elections you should be able to understand a national language and, as he says, English is not the most used foreign language in Switzerland so others would have to come first. See this.

I would also add that the abuse of sheep in this thread is quite appalling. Whatever happened to animal rights ?

I am not suggesting that Foreigner's shouldn't learn a local language. On the contrary, I fully support that.

My point was that the website http://www.auslaenderstimmrecht.ch/ would be better in English because it would at least be understood by most foreigners. To be politically correct you would have to create and maintain it in German, French, Italian and Romansch. Does that make more sense ? And who do you expect to provide that effort ?

Ausländerstimmrecht.ch is a grassroots effort by two Swiss, a Belgian and an Austrian so German is probably their common language.

However I don't see the point of foreign voting rights. Belgians and Austrians still can vote in their homeland from abroad (admittedly this is not the case for Ireland, as was explained to me in the Talacker Bar once). I think politically interested foreigners should rather discuss the conditions for naturalisation. I don't see the point of slicing the citizenship deal (rights and duties). In the end foreign voters could decide about my duties in the military or the fire brigade (which were recently mentioned in the forum) without sharing them, no thanks.

I can see your point Nathu.

So you would remove the voting rights for Swiss living abroad ?

I would not. Maybe the right to get elected for practical reasons as it is virtually impossible to perform these duties from abroad. And I might get slightly miffed if the voting documents get sent in other languages than the national ones.

But I think it's completely up to the host countries if they want to grant the abroad living Swiss any voting rights.

Swiss Abroad can only get elected if sufficient people in their constituency vote for them. So, if the voters agree that the best candidate is the Swiss who lives abroad, so be it.

Swiss Abroad receive voting documents in one of the national languages - you can choose which one regardless of your Heimatort for national votes. I believe you can do this within Switzerland too.

Swiss nationals (unless UK dual citizens of course) are not allowed onto the electoral register in the UK, even for parish council elections. Why should UK nationals vote in Switzerland if the rights are not reciprocated?

__________________
"What was the rude word?" "Was it really? Good heavens, you frighten me to death." - Bill Grundy.

http://www.blacksheep-themovie.com/

Bound to be a bockerbuster at the box office.
Cant' wait for the sequel: Black Sheep - Revenge of the Mint Source !

I guess this is absolutely the best part of the whole campaign:

SVP actually copied the sheep from foreigners!!
http://www.frog-blog.ch/frogblog/arc...he-schafe.aspx

Seems like it’s not the first time that the SVP borrows ideas from foreigners…. the mascot of the SVP called “Geissbock Zottel” is actually an African dwarf goat ?!? lol

Is the premiere in Switzerland going to be on a big screen in Sechseleutenplatz on the run-up week to the election, I wonder?

How the SVP's initiative will influence EM08:

Please translate what the sheep are saying in 2008