Saturday, August 29, 2015

Swiss Referendum System

Mr. Tan,
You referred to the Swiss system of referendum. Can you explain how it works?

REPLY
I asked the same question to a Swiss professor last year. He told me the following:

1. The government organize a referendum every 3 months.
2. Several questions are put to the citizens to vote.
3. The government provides a booklet to explain the issues that they have to vote on.
4. The citizens go to the poll and cast their votes on each issue.
5. The results of the polls are used by the government to decide on their policies and to recommend the laws in the passed in their legislature.
6. The law makers are guided by the views of the citizens.
7. The citizens can also recommend the issues to be put to the referendum, but they need to have a gather a certain number of signatures.

My "Wisdom of the Crowd" website is a small attempt to allow the citizens of Singapore to give their votes on issues affecting our lives. It is similar to the Swiss approach. However, I am using an online platform, and it is conducted the whole year round.

Give your support to this website, sg-pulse.com/crowd. Get your friends to vote also. Our views can be credible if we can gather 1,000 votes, or better still 10,000 votes on any of the issues.

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