The City Council of Vico Morcote asks its citizens to respond

The Municipal Assembly allows all citizens with the right to vote to be part of the Legislative. In addition to VicoMorcote it is a solution adopted across ten other Ticino municipalities (Aranno, Astano, Bedretto, Bosco Gurin, Campo Vallemaggia, Cerentino, Dalpe, Linescio, Mergoscia and Miglieglia). The City Council instead provides that those who sit in the Legislative are elected.

Vico’s decision to test the ground in this area at first sight is surprising, given that the Municipality has an mass project with Morcote at stake (the aim is to present the related study by Christmas) and therefore the Assembly could fall but it seems that it was the pandemic that has given them a jolt.

‘The Municipal Assembly is a admirable institution with its own history and tradition - the mayor of Vico Morcote Mr Giona Pifferi told us - ‘there are two reasons that prompted us to take the survey. The first is that, given that the Assembly is potentially open to everyone and in recent months we have been blocked due to the coronavirus technically we could not convenet because more than one hundred people who could potentially participate’ However the problem is the opposite: ‘Vico needs at least twenty people to be present to make the meeting valid’ During the last months this has not been possible ‘The Executive imagines a City Council made up of 15 people, the minimum required by law.

And there is the informal survey among citizens to understand what to do. The starting point was Aranno, who acted similarly last year: of the 180 polls sent, 47 returned, including 25 in favour of the City Council and 22 for the maintenance of the Assembly. The Municipality had then proposed to establish a Municipal Council, but the Assembly had said no. Not because it was contrary to the idea, but because it considered it a priority to concentrate the forces to join Bioggio.