Ordinance on the Initiative Procedure (VIV) - Submission of the Initiative (VIV)

1. Initiatives must be submitted to the council office during regular office hours.

2. The council office shall confirm receipt of the initiatives.

3. The initiative must include a written justification and must not be subject to any conditions.

4. If initiatives are incomplete, signatures are invalid, or a justification is missing, the council office shall inform the initiators and provide them with the opportunity for supplementation.

1. If an initiative is signed by multiple persons, the first signatory is considered the contact person, unless the initiators have designated another person in writing to the council office as responsible.

2. Communications and postal deliveries are generally made only to the contact person and are received by the council office only from them.

1. The initiators have no right to present their concerns directly before the office, the state commission, or the Grand Council.

2. They receive the applications and messages that are submitted to the Grand Council.

3. The office of the Grand Council decides whether any subsequent written submissions are forwarded to the Grand Council.

1. The Office of the Great Council reviews whether the initiative is valid and submits a corresponding proposal to the Great Council.

2. The proposal with the recommendation includes the text of the initiative along with its justification.

3. The Office may reject the justification for revision if it contains defamatory, false, misleading, or excessively lengthy statements. If no revision is submitted within the set deadline, the Office may directly amend the justification. Obvious errors and typographical errors are corrected without further ado.

1. The Standing Committee examines the initiative substantively.

2. It submits a proposal to the Grand Council regarding the content and procedure.

3. It may present the Grand Council with a counter-proposal to the initiative.

1. The Grand Council first decides on the validity of the initiative and then discusses its content.

2. If the initiative is only partially valid, but it is assumed that the purpose of the initiative can be fulfilled with the valid part, the initiative shall be addressed in substance with regard to the valid part.

3. If it is assumed that the purpose of the initiative cannot be fulfilled with the valid part alone, or if a partially invalid initiative cannot be logically divided into multiple proposals, the initiative shall be treated as entirely invalid.

1. For an initiative framed as a general suggestion, the Grand Council shall decide whether the regulation is to be incorporated entirely or partially into the Constitution or into a law.

2. If an initiative framed as a general suggestion concerns both the constitutional level and the legislative level, the Grand Council may allow the Landsgemeinde to first vote on the necessary constitutional proposal and only develop the legislative and any possible regulatory proposals after the constitutional vote.

3. A formulated initiative may only demand a change at one level of regulation. If, due to this change, adjustments are necessary at a lower level of regulation, the competent ordinary legislative body shall be responsible for this.

1. The Grand Council may propose a counter-proposal.

2. The counter-proposal must go to the Landsgemeinde in the same form as the initiative, that is, as a general suggestion or as a fully-formulated proposal.

3. Only one counter-proposal may be submitted to the Landsgemeinde.

1. If the Grand Council rejects an initiative, it can be withdrawn until the Grand Council's decision on the Landsgemeinde's rules of procedure; if the initiative or any counter-proposal is decided upon in the session during which the Landsgemeinde's rules are adopted, it can still be withdrawn within seven days from that session.

1bis. If the Grand Council approves the initiative, withdrawal is no longer possible once the initiative is adopted for the Landsgemeinde.

2. The following applies to withdrawals

a) * It must be done in writing.

b) * A conditional or partial withdrawal is not possible.

c) * It must be received by the Council Office before the relevant decisions of the Grand Council or within the seven-day period.

3. Only persons who are eligible to vote at the time of withdrawal are entitled to withdraw. If all signatories have lost the right to vote by the time an initiative can be withdrawn, the initiative will be written off.

4. Multiple signatories of an initiative can agree in writing on the entitlement to withdraw. If such an agreement is missing or invalid, the initiative can only be withdrawn through a written declaration by all initiators who are then eligible to vote.

1. The arguments of the initiators shall be adequately considered in the assembly mandate.

2. Lengthy justifications may be summarized.

1. This Regulation shall enter into force on January 1, 2018.