Voting and voting rights for foreigners

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The foreigners voting rights or foreigners suffrage means the right of a person in a community Political Rights as the right to vote or the active and passive suffrage to exercise, without domestic citizenship to possess. The right to vote for foreigners only exists in a few states and there, too, is mostly limited to local or sub-national elections.

Situation in the European Union

In the European Union , all EU citizens can vote in the local elections for their main residence, regardless of which Member State they are in. This right was introduced in the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 and has since been anchored in Article 22 (1) TFEU (formerly Article 19 (1) ECT ). A more precise specification was made by the Council Directive 94/80 / EC of 19 December 1994. Since this right to vote, which citizens of one Member State is entitled to in another Member State, is linked to the common Union citizenship law, it remains questionable whether this is a Voting rights for foreigners in the real sense.

According to Article 22 (2) TFEU (formerly Article 19 (2) ECT), all Union citizens can also choose whether they want to exercise their right to vote and stand for election to the European Parliament in their home country or in their country of residence. The details of exercising the right to vote in European elections for Union citizens residing in a Member State of which they are not a national is regulated by Council Directive 93/109 / EC of 6 December 1993. This right applies to Union citizens and relates to the Union level ; From a systematic point of view, therefore, it does not constitute a right to vote for foreigners, since Union citizens cannot be regarded as foreigners in the entire territory of the Union, at least in their relationship with the European Union, due to the principle of non-discrimination (Art. 18-25 TFEU). For the first time, EU foreigners living in Germany were able to take part in the European elections on June 12, 1994 in the election of German representatives in the European Parliament . Like the right to participate in local elections in the country of residence, the regulation is a result of the European freedom of movement for Union citizens under Art. 21 TFEU ​​and Art. 45 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights .

In some EU countries ( Belgium , Denmark , Estonia , Finland , Great Britain , Ireland , Lithuania , Luxembourg , the Netherlands , Portugal , Slovakia , Slovenia , Spain , Sweden and Hungary ) non-EU citizens are also allowed to participate in local elections, albeit for Partly only citizens of certain countries and often associated with long waiting periods. In these cases a real right to vote for foreigners is realized in parts of the European Union.

The European Convention on the Participation of Foreigners in Local Public Life , which was adopted in 1992 and entered into force in 1997 for Italy , the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, provides for a. provide active and passive voting rights for foreigners. It is an agreement of the Council of Europe that only a few countries have signed and that can also be signed without the article on the right to vote for foreigners; so far (as of February 2019) it has only occurred in five other countries ( Albania , Iceland, Finland, Denmark, Czech Republic ) in force.

Situation in Germany

GDR local elections in 1989: "Vietnamese, Cuban and Mozambique workers exercise their right to vote"

Through the law amending the municipal and district electoral law of February 9, 1989, the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein wanted to allow citizens of Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway , Sweden and Switzerland who have been entitled to live in Germany for at least five years Participate in community and district elections. However , in a judgment of October 31, 1990, the Federal Constitutional Court declared this law to be incompatible with Art. 28 (1) sentence 2 of the Basic Law . The "people", which according to this provision must have an elected representation in the federal states, districts and municipalities, is just like the people, from whom, according to Article 20, Paragraph 2 of the Basic Law, all state power proceeds, which it in elections and votes and through exercises special legislative, executive and judicial organs, only the German people, the state people of the Federal Republic of Germany. That excludes the granting of local voting rights to foreigners.

In the GDR local elections in March 1989 , foreigners living in the GDR had the first active and passive right to vote. However, these elections did not comply with democratic principles and were also massively falsified by electoral fraud. After the reunification in the GDR , GDR local elections were held again in May 1990 on the basis of a new electoral law . In these first free and democratic local elections, foreigners who had lived in the GDR for more than two years also enjoyed active and passive voting rights. These elections were therefore the first elections in Germany to allow foreigners to vote.

As part of the implementation of the above-mentioned provisions of the Maastricht Treaty, the law amending the Basic Law of December 21, 1992, Article 28 (1) of the Basic Law added the following sentence 3: “In the case of elections in districts and municipalities, persons are also those who have nationality of a member state of the European Community, entitled to vote and elected in accordance with the law of the European Community. "

In the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia , the government parliamentary groups planned to amend the state constitution in March 2017 in order to enshrine local voting rights for foreigners from non-EU countries. The wording proposed by the parties SPD , Greens and Pirates read: "People who are citizens of a third country and who have their permanent residence in Germany are also eligible to vote." The initiative met with sharp criticism from the CDU , its Secretary General Peter Tauber NRW Prime Minister Hannelore Kraft called for the project to be stopped immediately, as it would offer authoritarian foreign governments, for example Russia or Turkey, opportunities to influence politics in Germany. The proposal, which had already been assessed as hopeless in advance, and for whose acceptance a two-thirds majority would have been necessary, was approved in the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament on March 15, 2017 after an emotionally charged and sometimes turbulent debate, caused by the foreign policy tensions between Germany and the Turkish government that had recently escalated was overshadowed under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan , rejected as expected.

Situation in Austria

Like all EU countries, Austria grants all EU citizens the right to vote in municipal matters. In the city of Vienna , which is also one of the nine Austrian federal states , this right is limited to the so-called municipal districts, since at the federal state level no political rights are provided for Union citizens either. In 2003 the federal state of Vienna decided that the right to vote in the municipal districts would also be extended to non-EU foreigners who have had their main residence in Vienna for at least five years. The Constitutional Court , however, declared this unconstitutional and repealed the corresponding provision of the Vienna municipal electoral code.

Situation in Switzerland

Voting and voting rights for foreigners in Switzerland
  • Cantons with voting and active voting rights at canton level
  • Cantons / communes with voting and election rights at communal level
  • Cantons / communes with voting and active voting rights at communal level
  • Cantons with individual regulation at community level
  • Cantons / communes without voting rights
  • In Switzerland there are no political rights for foreigners at the federal level. The cantons - and, depending on the cantonal law, the communes as well - are free to provide different regulations. In Switzerland, in contrast to Germany, there is no homogeneity requirement that ensures that constitutional and / or electoral principles of the federal government also apply to the constitutional order of the member states . This was also important with the uneven introduction of women's suffrage in the individual cantons of Switzerland.

    The following cantons have introduced the right to vote and vote for foreigners at cantonal and communal level:

    • The canton of Jura grants foreigners who have lived in Switzerland for at least ten years and in the canton for at least one year the right to vote and to be active at the municipal and cantonal level. However, voting rights are excluded from voting on the cantonal constitution. The right to stand for election is only provided for legislative offices at the municipal level.
    • The Canton of Neuchâtel granted since 2000, foreigners who have a residence permit and live in the canton for at least five years, the voting and the right to vote in cantonal affairs. At the municipal level, the right to vote and the right to vote is granted to those foreigners who have a permanent residence permit and have lived in the canton for at least one year.

    The following cantons have introduced the right to vote and / or vote for foreigners at the municipal level:

    • The canton of Vaud granted in Art. 142 para. 1 KV VD since 2003 foreigners living in the canton for at least ten years in Switzerland and for at least three years, the voting and the integral right to vote in municipal affairs.
    • In Art. 42 Para. 1 KV GE, the canton of Geneva has granted foreigners who have lived in Switzerland for at least eight years the right to vote in communal matters since 2005. This also includes the right to sign initiatives and referendums, but not the right to stand as a candidate.
    • In Article 48, Paragraph 1 of the KV FR, the canton of Friborg has granted foreigners who have lived in the canton for at least five years the right to vote and the right to vote since 2006.

    The following cantons have granted the municipalities the right to independently introduce foreign voting rights and / or voting rights:

    • The canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden has granted this right since 1995 in Art. 105 (2) KV AR. So far, the communities of Wald , Speicher and Trogen have made use of this.
    • In 2003, the canton of Graubünden introduced a largely identical regulation in Art. 9 Para. 4 KV GR. So far, 18 municipalities have made use of this.
    • In Section 40 (2) KV BS, the canton of Basel-Stadt allows the municipalities to extend voting and election rights to other groups of people, so, for example, under 18s would also be allowed. Since the city of Basel is governed by the cantonal government, this option is only available for the other two municipalities, Riehen and Bettingen , which have not yet made use of it.

    Looking at these regulations from a geographical perspective, it is noticeable that five of the six mostly French-speaking cantons have relatively liberal regulations, while in German-speaking Switzerland there are still mostly restrictive regulations. Apart from the canton of Basel-Stadt, where the regulation is not very important due to the special circumstances, only two German-speaking cantons have changed their constitutions accordingly. Of the 600 municipalities that currently have the right to vote and / or vote for foreigners (as of 2015), 575 are in western Switzerland. Initiatives that provide for the granting of political rights to foreigners have had no chance in the recent and recent past.

    Situation in Luxembourg

    Due to a change in the law in 2003, non-Luxembourgers, including non-EU citizens who have lived in Luxembourg for at least five years at the time of entry on the electoral roll, are entitled to vote in local elections without losing the right to vote in the municipality of their country of origin . There was a participation of foreigners due to the new law for the first time in the local elections in 2005.

    On June 7, 2015, a referendum took place in Luxembourg on the introduction of the right to vote for foreigners at national level. Specifically, the question was asked whether a right to vote for all residents of Luxembourg who have lived in the Grand Duchy for at least ten years is in favor. The implementation of the referendum was the result of a discussion about the democratic legitimacy of the political authorities in a state in which more foreigners than Luxembourgers could possibly live in the future. According to surveys, a clear majority of foreigners living in Luxembourg would have opted for such a right to vote. However, only Luxembourgers were entitled to vote in the referendum. Almost 80% of them voted No to the right to vote for foreigners at national level.

    Situation in the Commonwealth

    The British Nationality Act 1948 regulated the status of colonial subjects of the British Empire as British subjects , which until 1962 also included the citizens of the Commonwealth of Nations . Commonwealth citizens from other countries of the former British Empire had civil rights in various successor states of the colonial empire, including the right to vote. Most of these privileges were abolished as early as the 1960s. In the context of Africanization , this also took place on the African continent in the following decade . Today, only a few Caribbean islands still allow Commonwealth citizens living in the country to vote.

    Situation in other countries

    The vast majority of states in the world do not grant foreigners resident in the country who do not have domestic citizenship the right to vote. As a rule, full entitlement to participate in elections is only associated with naturalization . After a naturalization, the right to stand for election can often only be exercised after a certain waiting period and is completely excluded for naturalized citizens in some states or for certain offices. A well-known example is the United States , where constitutional requirements require presidential candidates to be natural born citizens.

    Based on the principle of reciprocity under international law, various countries grant selected foreigners special rights also with regard to participation in elections. In Brazil, for example, based on the 1988 constitution, all Portuguese living there, after administrative registration, have the same active and passive voting rights as nationals. In this case, reciprocity is only incomplete, as Portugal also grants Brazilians the right to vote and stand for election in local elections, but only the right to vote for national elections, and only upon application after a special discretionary test . Similar reciprocity regulations are constitutionally made possible in other countries of the lusophone community , for example in Article 24 paragraph 4 of the Cape Verdean constitution.

    Around 52 countries around the world generally allow foreigners living legally in the country to vote, but mostly not at the national level, but only in local , district or provincial elections . Only in four countries on earth, two of them in Latin America , are foreigners allowed to participate in national elections in principle - not only for reciprocity and not limited to certain nationalities: Chile, Uruguay, New Zealand, Malawi.

    The oldest permit of this kind has been anchored in the Constitution of Chile for more than 125 years . According to Article 14 of the current constitution, foreigners who have lived in Chile for more than five years enjoy the full right to vote, including the election of the President of Chile . In contrast, since a constitutional amendment in 2005, the right to stand as a candidate has been expressly linked to the requirement of Chilean citizenship and immigrants can only exercise it five years after naturalization at the earliest.

    A similar regulation has been in place in Uruguay since 1952. Article 78 of the Uruguayan Constitution grants foreigners who have lived in Uruguay for at least 15 years the full right to vote, expressly “without the need to obtain legal citizenship beforehand” ( sin necesidad de obtener previamente ciudadanía legal ).

    In both Chile and Uruguay, on the other hand, nationals living abroad had no right to vote in national elections for a long time. Chile relaxed this rule through a constitutional amendment in December 2013.

    New Zealand has known the right to vote for foreigners in the House of Representatives elections since 1975 . New Zealanders living abroad are also allowed to vote. There is no direct election of the head of government or head of state in New Zealand.

    In Malawi , foreigners who have lived in the country for seven years are allowed to vote in parliamentary elections at the national level, but not in the presidential elections .

    A curiosity is the Argentine province of Buenos Aires , where the foreigners resident in the region are not only entitled to participate in the municipal, district and regional elections, but are expressly obliged due to the compulsory voting there according to provincial law No. 14.086. However, they are excluded from national elections.

    argumentation

    Some of the main arguments are:

    • Proponents argue that involvement in (local) politics promotes integration. Opponents counter this by stating that political rights should rather be a reward for successful integration.
    • Proponents argue that foreigners are subject to state power to the same extent as citizens. In particular, everyone would have to pay taxes equally, but foreigners could not have a say in how their taxes were used. Opponents oppose this by saying that this is “cherry picking” ( Stephan Mayer ), since citizenship is not only associated with rights, but also obligations. In countries with compulsory military service , reference is often made to this obligation. On the other hand, however, it can be objected that justice in the military can be guaranteed less and less and that women are generally excluded from it.
    • Proponents argue that the second and third generations often no longer have strong connections with their home country and that their center of life is mostly in the host country. Opponents oppose this by stating that the foreigners come from, in some cases, completely different cultures and that they could be naturalized after successful integration, as this is not a high hurdle.
    • The opponents argue that in an emergency, foreigners would have the opportunity to leave the country, while citizens would usually not have this option and would have to assist the state in the event of war. Proponents oppose this by saying that today's economy thinks in global categories, mobility is very high and the danger of war in Europe has largely been averted.

    See also

    literature

    • T. Geiser, T. Hugi Yar, B. Rudin, P. Uebersax (eds.): Immigration law. 2nd Edition. Helbing Lichtenhahn, Basel 2009, ISBN 978-3-7190-2698-1 .
    • Robert Chr. Van Ooyen : Democratic participation instead of “integration”. Normative state-theoretical justification of a general right to vote for foreigners. At the same time, a criticism of Smend's integration theory. In: Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft , 2/2003, pp. 601–627.
    • Robert Chr. Van Ooyen: Not integration, but participation: the right to vote for foreigners as a human right of a liberal theory of the state people. In: Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft, 1/2011, pp. 134–142.
    • Andreas M. Wüst: Elections and political representation. In: Karl-Heinz Meier-Braun, Reinhold Weber (ed.): Germany immigration country: terms - facts - controversies. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2013, pp. 214–217.

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ Council Directive 94/80 / EC of December 19, 1994 in the consolidated version of January 1, 2007 , accessed on June 16, 2017
    2. Foreigners can take part in the German European elections. Premiere for EU citizens. In: Berliner Zeitung , March 16, 1994; Accessed: February 19, 2017.
    3. ^ Federal Agency for Civic Education : European elections. Introduction to the electoral system. Status: March 13, 2014. Access: February 13, 2017.
    4. Belgium grants all expats local election voting rights . Expatica. February 20, 2004. Retrieved November 11, 2010.
    5. Citizens of the Commonwealth and Ireland only .
    6. Mutually only: Brazil , Cape Verde , Argentina , Chile , Israel , Norway , Peru , Uruguay and Venezuela .
    7. Mutually only: Argentina, Bolivia , Chile, Ecuador , Iceland , Cape Verde, Colombia , New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay , Peru, Trinidad and Tobago , Uruguay and Venezuela;
      see. Ana Delicado Palacios: Qué países permiten votar a los extranjeros. In: Infobae , September 6, 2012, accessed February 15, 2017 (Spanish).
    8. Werner Bauer: The municipal right to vote for foreigners in a European comparison (PDF; 122 kB), Conference “Political Participation of Immigrants”, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung . February 16, 2008, Bonn.
    9. Harald Waldrauch: "Electoral rights for foreign nationals: a comparative overview of regulations in 36 countries" , Conference The Challenges of Immigration and Integration in the European Union and Australia , February 18-20, 2003.
    10. David Earnest: Voting Rights for Resident Aliens: A Comparison of 25 Democracies (PDF file; 199 kB), 2003 Annual Meeting of the Northeast Political Science Association / International Studies Association-Northeast. November 7, 2003, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
    11. Global Resident Voting Timeline . Immigrant Voting Project. Archived from the original on March 16, 2010. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 7, 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.immigrantvoting.org
    12. Chart of signatures and ratifications of Treaty 144th Council of Europe, February 17, 2019, accessed on February 17, 2019 .
    13. BVerfG, judgment of October 31, 1990, Az. 2 BvF 2, 6/89; BVerfGE 83, 37 - Right to vote for foreigners I.
    14. Law on elections to district assemblies, city council assemblies, city district assemblies and municipal councils on May 6, 1990. of March 6, 1990, amended on April 5, 1990.
    15. Federal Law Gazette I 2086.
    16. Communication on current legislative procedures ( Memento of the original from March 15, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia , updated on March 8, 2017, accessed on March 14, 2017.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.landtag.nrw.de
    17. ^ Tauber: NRW must stop plans for foreigners' right to vote. In: WAZ ; Like. Tauber: “Stop immediately” plans for foreigners' right to vote. In: FAZ ; both from March 14, 2017, accessed on the same day.
    18. ^ Christian Wolf: Right to vote for foreigners in the state parliament rejected. In: WDR from March 15, 2017, accessed on the same day.
    19. G 218 / 03-16. Archived from the original on November 4, 2016 ; accessed on June 16, 2017 .
    20. ^ Gerd Valchars: Deficit Democracy. Citizenship and voting rights in Austria, a country of immigration, Braumüller, Vienna 2006. pp. 83–97.
    21. Municipalities and cantons with voting rights for foreigners. Federal Statistical Office, accessed on July 22, 2019 .
    22. "Loi sur les droits politiques" ( Memento of the original from March 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Canton of Jura.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / extranet.ju.ch
    23. ^ Loi sur les droits politiques (LDP). Retrieved June 16, 2017 .
    24. ^ Constitution of the Republic and Canton of Neuchâtel. Retrieved June 16, 2017 .
    25. ^ Constitution of the Canton of Vaud. Retrieved June 16, 2017 .
    26. ^ Constitution of the Republic and the Canton of Geneva (KV-GE). Retrieved June 16, 2017 .
    27. ^ Constitution of the Canton of Friborg. Retrieved June 16, 2017 .
    28. ^ Constitution of the Canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden. Retrieved June 16, 2017 .
    29. ^ Constitution of the Canton of Graubünden. Retrieved June 16, 2017 .
    30. ^ Constitution of the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Retrieved June 16, 2017 .
    31. Marc Tribelhorn: More rights for foreigners. The liberal think tank Avenir Suisse is calling for greater involvement at community level. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of September 9, 2015. Accessed September 14, 2015.
    32. Information from the government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg ( Memento of the original from February 17, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dated April 8, 2011, accessed February 17, 2017.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.guichet.public.lu
    33. a b The right to vote for foreigners divides Luxembourgers. Retrieved June 16, 2017 .
    34. ^ Luxembourg - Discussion about the right to vote for foreigners. Retrieved June 16, 2017 .
    35. Referendum: Luxembourgers say no to the right to vote for foreigners. Retrieved June 16, 2017 .
    36. 11 & 12 Geo. 6 c. 56, in force Jan. 1, 1949.
    37. Text of the Cape Verdean constitution ( memento of the original from February 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.3 MB); Instituto dos Estudos Políticos - Luso Fórum para a Democracia , accessed February 19, 2017 (Portuguese). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ucp.pt
    38. ^ Andreas M. Wüst: Elections and political representation. In: Karl-Heinz Meier-Braun, Reinhold Weber (ed.): Germany immigration country: terms - facts - controversies. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2013, pp. 214–217 (here: 214).
    39. Article 14 of the Chilean Constitution of 1980 as amended in accordance with Law No. 20.050 of 2005; Georgetown University , accessed February 19, 2017 (Spanish).
    40. Andrea Soto: Cronología del voto exterior (information offered by the Chilean government for Chinese abroad). Published October 16, 2015, retrieved February 15, 2017 (Spanish).
    41. For the entire section: Ana Delicado Palacios: Qué países permiten votar a los extranjeros. In: Infobae , September 6, 2012, accessed February 15, 2017 (Spanish).
    42. No right to vote for non-EU foreigners. Retrieved April 25, 2020 .
    43. No right to vote for non-EU foreigners. Retrieved April 25, 2020 .