Freedom of voters to form an opinion

a. Administrative authorities must observe throughout the campaign period their duty of neutrality (see I.2.2.a. above), which is one of the means of ensuring that voters can form an opinion freely.

b. The use of public resources by the authorities for campaigning purposes must be prohibited. Political parties and their representatives, including those who are elected representatives or hold a public office, are entitled to take actively part in the campaign. Particular duties of reserve may apply to the persons belonging to the public authority responsible for the organisation or supervision of the referendum.

c. The question put to the vote must be clear and comprehensible; it must not be misleading; it must be unbiased, not suggesting an answer; voters must be informed of the effects of the referendum; voters must be able to answer the questions asked solely by yes, no or a blank vote. It is suitable that the questions follow a fixed format. Multiple-option questions can be envisaged (see below III.5.b).

d. An impartial body (see II.4.1 below) must exercise prior scrutiny on the clarity of the question.

e. An impartial body must provide balanced information. This implies that the text submitted to a referendum and an explanatory report or balanced campaign material from the proposal’s supporters and opponents should be made available to electors sufficiently in advance, as follows:

i. they must be sent directly to citizens and be received sufficiently far in advance of the vote;

ii. the text submitted to referendum and the date of the referendum must be published in the official gazette sufficiently far in advance of the vote;

iii. the explanatory report must give a balanced presentation not only of the viewpoint of the executive and legislative authorities or persons sharing their viewpoint, but also of the opposing one.