Luxembourg rejects extending voting rights to foreigners

Luxembourg

LUXEMBOURG rejected on Sunday extending voting rights to foreigners, a move that would have been unprecedented in Europe and that could have expanded the electorate of the tiny but cosmopolitan grand duchy by as much as 50 per cent.

With 82 per cent of a referendum count completed, only about one in five voters supported allowing long-time foreign residents to vote in national elections, part of a modernising agenda backed by liberal Prime Minister Xavier Bettel.