Keystone-SDA
Foreigners domiciled in Moutier will benefit from the right to vote on the municipal and cantonal voting this year before the provost city became Jura on January 1, 2026. In total, 1114 citizens of foreign nationality received from the municipality a booklet to familiarize them with the exercise of their new political rights.
(Keystone-ATS) Unlike the canton of Bern, the canton of Jura grants the right to vote in cantonal matters to foreigners established in Switzerland for 10 years and in the canton for 1 year. The only exception, the polls affecting the Constitution. They are also voters in municipal matters under certain conditions.
Provost foreign citizens will therefore be able to participate in political life as provided for in Jura law. They will be able to take part in the Jura cantonal elections of October 19 as voters and choose the five members of the government and the seven deputies granted to the Moutier district.
These new holders of the voting right will also be able to participate on the same day in two municipal votes: the 2026 budget and the new organizational regulations of the municipality. With the transfer to the canton of the Jura, the Provost City electoral register will therefore have 1114 new rights holders.
Booklet and information session
For the sake of information and to promote participation in the polls, the municipality sent voters in mid-July an explanatory booklet. Entitled “New political rights of foreign persons – the essentials in short”, this document describes the rights of foreign persons according to the Jura regime.
A public information meeting will take place on August 18 in the presence of representatives of the Jura state. Giving the right to vote to foreigners was a campaign argument for supporters of the cantonal change in the city of Moutier.
