Why the Fifth Switzerland votes
Some 838,600 Swiss citizens live abroad, 11.3% of all Swiss citizens. About 660,000 of them are old enough to vote, more than 200,000 of those are registered, and, on our estimate, fewer than one in ten adult Swiss abroad votes in a given federal ballot. ((Registered: more than 200,000; SWI swissinfo.ch reported over 230,000 in June 2025 (https://www.swissinfo.ch/ger/schweizer-politik/die-mehrheit-der-auslandschweizerinnen-wird-2027-nicht-online-w%C3%A4hlen-k%C3%B6nnen/89305366); no single federal tally is published. Turnout: our aggregation of the Federal Chancellery VoteInfo Auslandschweizer units for the eight reporting cantons (ZH, AG, SG, BS, LU, TG, AI, UR), 14 June 2026: pooled diaspora turnout 28.2%, against 58.9% nationally. Partial — the diaspora in the cantons that report it separately, not the Swiss-abroad vote. Roughly 28% of 200,000 to 230,000 registered is on the order of 60,000 ballots, under 10% of the ~660,000 Swiss abroad of voting age; the extrapolation is our estimate. Method and data: https://swissabroad.vote/10-million-measure-rejected/)) This page explains why the Fifth Switzerland votes, and why we think it should.
Where the Fifth Switzerland comes from
Switzerland counts itself in four groups (based on linguistic identity): German, French, Italian and Romansh. Its citizens abroad are counted as the fifth. The Organisation of the Swiss Abroad held its first congress in 1918. Most of their mewmbers would have to wait nearly sixty years to get to vote.
Why the question keeps coming back
No proposal to take that right to vote away is before Parliament today, as far as we know; the last one, filed in 2017, had no majority by its own author’s account (see below). However, the doubt about the diaspora vote comes back every time a federal election result is close.
For example, in September 2020, when the vote to buy new fighter jets passed by 8,670 votes (50.1% to 49.9%). In the twelve cantons that count their citizens abroad separately, 51.1% of them had voted No, and many Swiss abroad reported ballots that arrived days late or never. Had those ballots arrived in time, the result could have gone the other way.
So these results lead to the question of why do people who don’t even live in Switzerland get a say in what happens to us?
The strongest objection
The main criticism is: “You get to vote on the consequences; we have to live with them.” A Swiss citizen in Buenos Aires helps decide a food policy whose costs land on farmers in the Emmental and shoppers in Lausanne, then goes back to an everyday life not affected by the rise in costs.
Its most formal version came from Andrea Caroni, a member of the upper house. He has repeatedly proposed, including in Parliament in 2017, that dual citizens who have been gone for more than twenty years should have their vote switched off. ((Original (German): «Aber nach einer gewissen Zeit, nach 20 oder 25 Jahren, wenn man davon ausgeht, dass die Person nicht mehr zurückkommt, also auch nicht mehr von den Entscheidungen betroffen sein wird, soll daher ihr Stimmrecht ruhen.» — https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/stimmrecht-unter-druck-weniger-politische-rechte-fuer-auslandschweizer)) Someone who has never lived in Switzerland, or left forty years ago, is in his words taking decisions that affect only other people. ((Original (German): «Wenn nun jemand noch gar nie in der Schweiz gelebt hat oder seit 40 Jahren nicht mehr, dann finde ich es demokratiepolitisch etwas problematisch, wenn er dann trotzdem bei uns Entscheide fällt, die nur die anderen betreffen.» — https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/stimmrecht-unter-druck-weniger-politische-rechte-fuer-auslandschweizer)) In 2019 he admitted the idea had no majority.
Exposure should not decide who votes
People living in Switzerland do not bear the consequences of every vote equally either. A voter in Geneva can vote on agricultural policy; someone without children can vote on schools. We do not require citizens to be equally affected before giving them an equal say.
Living abroad can widen that gap, but it does not justify why a citizen should lose the vote.
Every voter owes careful consideration to the people affected, irrespective of their personal exposure.
Whose country it is
Switzerland votes questions about what kind of country Switzerland wants to be (Neutrality, 10 million swiss etc..), and the people with a claim to answer them are its members. Swiss citizens abroad are members: they are Swiss by the same law of descent as everyone else, and the resident electorate confirmed it at the ballot box in 1966 (see Appendix A).
Distance has advantages as well as drawbacks. The Netherlands opened marriage to same-sex couples in 2001 and Germany in 2017; Switzerland voted on “Ehe für alle” on 26 September 2021. A Swiss citizen in Amsterdam had lived for twenty years with the law Switzerland was deciding on. On some questions the view from outside is the better-informed one.
And some votes directly affect the Fifth Switzerland. A child born abroad to a Swiss parent, holding a second passport, loses Swiss citizenship at 25 unless registered with a Swiss authority by then. If you live abroad and your country is voting on whether your children are Swiss, you have a vote or you have the exit.
Why the vision matters
Another objection is that Swiss abroad cast feel-good votes for an idealized Switzerland while leaving others to bear the costs. But wanting Switzerland to become a different kind of country is a political purpose, not evidence of self-indulgence. Citizens at home vote for their ideals too.
In February 1959 Swiss men voted on whether women should vote, and said No, 66.9% to 33.1%. The third who said Yes were voting for a country that didn’t exist and, by the looks of it, wouldn’t soon. Twelve years later 65.7% said Yes. The diaspora franchise itself was an idea before it was a reality. It was written into the Constitution in 1966, usable only by travelling to Switzerland until 1992 (see Appendix A). Every step toward the ideal Switzerland was an expressive vote first.
The Fifth Switzerland carries a vision of the country shaped partly by seeing it from outside. We think inviting that vision into the conversation is in the spirit of a country that wrote its emigrants into its Constitution, and in the spirit of democracy generally. This is one reason this site exists.
Still part of the “we”
The Fifth Switzerland should neither pretend that living abroad makes no difference nor accept that crossing a border turns a citizen into a spectator. Swiss citizens abroad remain members of the political community, and those who register and vote show it.
If you are Swiss and abroad, whatever your politics, you should register and vote.
Appendix A — How the Fifth Switzerland got the vote
1966. Voters approve a dedicated constitutional article on the Swiss abroad (Art. 45bis of the old Federal Constitution) with 68.1% Yes, all cantons in favour, on 47.9% turnout. Parliament had backed it unanimously: 112 to 0 in the National Council, 33 to 0 in the Council of States.
1975/1977. The federal act of 19 December 1975 on the political rights of the Swiss abroad enters into force on 1 January 1977. Citizens abroad can now vote in federal matters, provided they travel to Switzerland to do it. Participation stays tiny.
1992. Postal voting from abroad begins on 1 July 1992, on a motion by Zug National Councillor Georg Stucky. The franchise becomes usable. Registrations climb from roughly 14,000 at the time to more than 200,000 today.
2014/2015. The Swiss Abroad Act of 26 September 2014 (in force 1 November 2015) consolidates the rules: registration through the Swiss representation, no renewal requirement, deregistration and re-registration possible at any time.
Today. Several cantons additionally offer e-voting to their registered Swiss abroad under the current federally supervised trial. Availability changes by canton and vote date; see our voting guide for the current state.
Appendix B — The legal basis
Constitution. Art. 136 para. 1 of the Federal Constitution grants political rights in federal matters to all Swiss citizens aged 18 and over. Residence in Switzerland is not among the conditions. Art. 40 empowers the Confederation to legislate on the rights and duties of the Swiss abroad, expressly including the exercise of political rights at federal level. ((Original (German), Art. 40 Abs. 2 BV: der Bund erlässt Vorschriften über die Rechte und Pflichten der Auslandschweizerinnen und Auslandschweizer, «namentlich in Bezug auf die Ausübung der politischen Rechte im Bund» — https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/1999/404/de))
Statute. The Swiss Abroad Act (ASG, SR 195.1) provides that Swiss abroad aged 18+ may exercise federal political rights (Art. 16); that the voting commune is the last commune of residence in Switzerland, or the commune of origin for citizens who never resided in Switzerland (Art. 18); that registration runs through the competent Swiss representation and may be entered, cancelled, and re-entered at any time (Art. 19); and that cantons may keep a central register for their Swiss abroad (Art. 20). Registered voters abroad are struck from the register only when voting material is returned as undeliverable three times in a row, with re-registration available on request. The federal Political Rights Act (BPR, SR 161.1) applies subsidiarily.
Practice. Ballot materials are dispatched to the foreign address by priority mail, in any of the four official languages at the voter’s choice; cantonal dispatch windows differ, and the returned envelope must arrive by the cantonal deadline to count. Details and current e-voting availability: our voting guide.