Optional referendum

The optional referendum (German: fakultatives Referendum; French: référendum facultatif, Italian: referendum facoltativo, Romansh: referendum facultativ) is an instrument of direct democracy in Switzerland. It allows citizens to oppose laws voted by the federal parliament, cantonal and/or municipal decrees by legislative and/or executive bodies.

On a federal level a votation will be organised for every law that collected 50,000 valid signatures of opponents, collected during the period of 100 days after the publication by the parliament.

A referendum can also be requested by a minimum of eight cantons, the so-called cantonal referendum (not to be mismatched with a mandatory or optional referendum on a cantonal level).

It is different from the mandatory referendum in that a collection of signatures is necessary to organise the referendum.

After pressure of a grass-roots movement, the optional referendum was introduced in 1874.

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