Foreign workers association calls for non-national vote

(CS) The Luxembourg association for the support of foreign workers, ASTI, has called for a broad discussion on the non-national vote ahead of the 2014 elections.

At a press conference on Thursday ASTI spoke out for the right to vote in national elections for foreigners, provided that they have lived in the country for two years. Additionally, the association suggested that foreigners should be subject to the same conditions as nationals, meaning that they will be automatically added to electoral lists with the obligation to vote.

National elections in Luxembourg take place every five years, with the next elections scheduled for 2014. ASTI hopes that by 2019 the first non-nationals could participate in the general election.

Foreigners are able to vote in local elections, subject to a five-year residence period, but are currently barred from taking part in national elections, despite making up around 40 percent of the population in the country. To take part in European Parliament elections, foreigners need to have lived in Luxembourg for two years.

While ASTI said that the country was still democratic, it warned of a democratic deficit, saying that MPs were no longer representative of the population. In fact, the Chamber of Deputies should only count 34 instead of 60 MPs if it was proportionate to the number of voters, according to ASTI.

Furthermore, the association warned not to confuse discussions for the national vote with the current reform of the law to gain Luxembourg citizenship.

Even citizens who do not wish to gain Luxembourg nationality should be involved in the democratic process of the country that they live and work in.