Facts

On 29 September 2017, the Federal Assembly adopted the new Federal Act on Gambling (Gambling Act). A referendum was launched against this Act, and the federal popular vote took place on 10 June 2018. The Pirate Party of Switzerland, the Pirate Party of Central Switzerland, and Stefan Thöni filed voting appeals, arguing that various interventions by the Conference of Cantonal Governments (KdK), the Specialist Directors' Conference on the Lottery Market and Lottery Law (Specialist Directors' Conference), Swisslos Intercantonal National Lottery (Swisslos), and the Sport-Toto-Gesellschaft in the voting campaign were incompatible with the freedom of voting under Art. 34 para. 2 of the Federal Constitution.

The Federal Court dismissed the appeals, insofar as it entered into them. It stated that an appeal in voting rights matters can claim that a voting video published by the Federal Chancellery - possibly in cooperation with a department - prior to a federal popular vote to inform the eligible voters violates the right of the eligible voters to form their will freely and to cast an unaltered vote in accordance with Art. 34 para. 2 of the Federal Constitution. However, to the extent that the appellants criticized specific passages of the video due to the text corresponding to the voting explanations adopted by the Federal Council, a review by the Federal Court was not admissible under Art. 189 para. 4 of the Federal Constitution.

Considerations

Official interventions in the voting campaign of other communities are judged according to a different standard than interventions in the voting campaign of authorities in their own community. According to the case law of the Federal Court, official interventions in the voting campaign of higher-level communities require a special concern.

The Federal Court held that the cantons are quite significantly affected as a whole by the outcome of the vote on the new Gambling Act, as the Act regulates, among other things, the permissibility and implementation of gambling, which are organized by cantonal monopoly enterprises, and because the cantons are allowed or required to use the net profits from certain gambling for charitable purposes. Therefore, the KdK was allowed to publicly comment…