BL cantonal council Preliminary consultation committee against Baselbieter electoral reform
The preliminary deliberations of the Justice and Security Committee of the Basel-Landschaft cantonal parliament do not want to know anything about electoral reform. It has asked parliament not to approve a government bill.
03.09.2024, 16:09
SDA
The decision was made by a narrow margin of 7 votes to 6, as can be seen from the committee's report published on Tuesday. The opposing side saw no added value in the reform. According to the report, the new electoral law model is hardly more comprehensible and can hardly be better communicated to voters than the current electoral law.
According to the report, the minority argued that it is part of Swiss legal culture to implement the will of the people as precisely as possible. In addition, the bill had been drawn up on behalf of the Landrat. The opponents would represent the position of their parties. The SVP and FDP had opposed a reform in the cantonal council.
From 2027, the proportional party strengths are to be better reflected in future elections to the Basel district council and the jumps in seats between constituencies reduced. In September 2022, Parliament instructed the government to draw up a bill to revise the electoral law according to a canton-wide double proportional representation system.
According to the cantonal government, the revision is intended to put the representation of the different parts of the canton in the cantonal council on a new, better legal basis. According to the government, the current electoral system for the cantonal council only partially reflects the proportional representation in a distorted way and leads to seat shifts between constituencies that are difficult to explain.
