Sawt Falasteen - Swiss vote on pensions, retirement age

As the final voters cast their ballots before polls close at noon (1100 GMT), a proposal to gradually raise the retirement age from 65 to 66 looked set to fail, but a second proposal seeking to boost pension payments had a chance of squeaking through.

Most people vote in advance in Switzerland, which holds popular votes and referenda every few months under its direct democracy system, and initial results were expected by mid-afternoon.

The "Better living in retirement" proposal, put forward by Swiss trade unions, calls for a 13th monthly pension payment each year, similar to the additional monthly salary many employees receive in Switzerland and other European countries.

Opinion polls indicate that most Swiss voters favour the initiative, although the support has dwindled and the outcome remains unclear.

Monthly social security pension payments in Switzerland can rise to 2,450 Swiss francs ($2,780) for individuals and 3,675 francs for married couples.

The payments do not go far in a country consistently ranked among the most expensive in the world.

Rent for a typical two-bedroom apartment in Swiss cities is at least 3,000 francs and a coffee costs upwards of five francs.

If the Swiss approve the shift, they would not be the first in Europe -- neighbouring Liechtenstein has had a similar system in place for years.

- 'Soaring' costs -

"There is a purchasing power crisis," said Pierre-Yves Maillard, head of the Swiss Trade Union Federation (SGB) and part of the "yes" campaign.

"Retirees are seeing their living standards erode," he told AFP.

"The cost of living just keeps soaring," agreed Jakob Hauri, a retiree quoted by the campaign.

Left-leaning parties support the initiative but it has been fiercely fought by right-wing and centrist parties.

The Swiss government and parliament also oppose it.

They warn that Switzerland's public pension system is becoming increasingly hard to finance, even without the requested hike.

At the end of 2022, more than 2.5 million people in Switzerland were receiving old-age pensions from social security -- a million more than in 2000, official statistics show.

The government has said that the proposed hike would cost more than four billion Swiss francs a year, warning it would require tax increases and could threaten the financial stability of the social security system.

And it maintains that the proposed change would have a limited social benefit, with the additional payments going to all pensioners, regardless of their financial situation.

"If the initiative passes, a lot of retirees will receive a 13th social security payment even though they don't really need it," it warned.

- 'Irresponsible' -

For the hard-right Swiss People's Party, the "irresponsible" initiative would allow freeloaders to deplete the social security system.

Switzerland's largest party has been striving to drum up opposition with adverts, including one showing 100-franc notes being sucked down a drain.

That campaign seems to have had an effect.

In the latest survey carried out by gfs.bern for public broadcaster SSR, 53 percent of respondents said they backed the initiative, down from 61 percent in a similar poll less than a month earlier.

It is also uncertain whether the initiative will garner the double-majority needed to pass, by winning both the popular vote and majorities in most of Switzerland's 26 cantons.

The Swiss were also voting on Sunday on a proposal from the youth branch of the right-wing Liberal Party to raise the retirement age from 65 to 66 to ensure full financing of the pension system.

The vote comes less than two years after Swiss voters narrowly opted to raise the retirement age for women from 64 to 65, to match the retirement age for men.

But the initiative appears dead in the water. Latest surveys indicate only 35 percent of those questioned favour such a move, while 63 percent oppose it.

Voter participation is generally low in Switzerland's popular polls and rarely inches above 50 percent.

But Sunday's issues have sparked heated debate and participation was expected to be higher than usual.

T.Ibrahim--SF-PST