BERN, Switzerland (AP) — Voters in Switzerland on Sunday rejected plans to protect the country's wealth by investing in gold and drastically limit immigration, according to polling firm gfs.bern. 
 
 FILE - in this Nov. 16, 2014 file photo a person holds gold coins during an exhibition in Lenzburg, Switzerland. In Switzerland, a campaign is on to protect the country’s wealth by investing in gold ... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Aug. 8, 2011 file photo a person touches gold bars in the gold store of the Cantonal Bank of Zurich ZKB in Zurich, Switzerland. In Switzerland, a campaign is on to protect the country’s... (Associated Press) 
 
 A woman casts her ballot in Chur, Switzerland Sunday Nov. 30, 2014. Voters in Switzerland have begun casting their ballots in a referendum over whether to protect the country's wealth by investing in... (Associated Press) 
 
 A man casts his ballot in Chur, Switzerland Sunday Nov. 30, 2014. Voters in Switzerland have begun casting their ballots in a referendum over whether to protect the country's wealth by investing in gold.... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Aug. 8, 2011 file photo a person takes a gold bar in the gold store of the Cantonal Bank of Zurich ZKB in Zurich, Switzerland. In Switzerland, a campaign is on to protect the country’s... (Associated Press) 
 
 A proposal to require the Swiss central bank to hold a fifth of its reserves in gold was opposed by 78 percent of voters and supported by 22 percent, projections based on tallies provided by selected voting districts indicated. 
 
 The plan would have forced the Swiss National Bank to buy massive amounts of gold within five years and likely causing the global price for the valuable metal to jump. 
 
 The proposal to limit immigration to 0.2 percent of Switzerland's population — about 16,000 immigrants a year for a country of 8 million — received the backing of 26 percent of voters, while 74 percent opposed it. Currently, immigration is estimated at around 80,000 a year. 
 
 The "Ecopop" initiative would also have forced Switzerland to devote a large chunk of its foreign aid to programs aimed at reducing population growth in poor countries. 
 
 Earlier this year, Swiss voters narrowly backed a proposal by the nationalist People's Party to reintroduce quotas for immigrants. The outcome has proved to be a political headache for the Swiss government as it now needs to renegotiate bilateral treaties with the European Union, of which it isn't a member. 
 
 A third national referendum, which would have abolished special tax discounts for rich foreigners living in Switzerland, was also defeated, according to gfs.bern. The pollsters predicted 60 percent voted against the measure, while 40 percent were in favor of it. 
 
 Official results are expected to be published later Sunday. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption As Imogen Foulkes reports, around 74% of people voted against the measure 
 
 Voters in Switzerland have decisively rejected a proposal to cut net immigration to no more than 0.2% of the population. 
 
 The country's 26 cantons rejected the proposal, with about 74% of people voting no in Sunday's referendum. 
 
 Supporters of the measure argued that it would have reduced pressure on the country's resources. Opponents said it would have been bad for the economy. 
 
 Around a quarter of Switzerland's eight million people are foreigners. 
 
 The measure would have required the government to reduce immigration from about 80,000 to 16,000 people a year. 
 
 Image copyright EPA 
 
 Under Switzerland's system of direct democracy, citizens can force a referendum if they muster enough signatures of support. 
 
 The country voted in February to re-introduce immigration quotas, in effect opting out of an EU free movement agreement. 
 
 The government still has to implement that referendum result, which threw relations with the EU into turmoil. 
 
 Two other referendums were also being held on Sunday: one on forcing the central bank to boost its gold reserves and one on scrapping a tax perk for wealthy foreigners. 
 
 They, too, failed to garner enough support for the measures to pass into law. 
 
 'Ecopop' 
 
 The immigration proposal was dubbed the Ecopop measure, after Switzerland's 40-year-old Ecopop movement which seeks to link environmental protection with controlling population growth. 
 
 The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says that while unemployment is low and living standards are high, many Swiss worry about overcrowding and environmental degradation. 
 
 Switzerland's population has grown by over a million in 20 years, and is currently 8.2 million. Some 23% of its inhabitants are foreign nationals, most of them from EU states. 
 
 Last year, net immigration stood at 81,000, according to public broadcaster Swiss Info. 
 
 Supporters of the measure said restricting immigration would safeguard Switzerland's environment by reducing the need for new transport links and new housing. 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption People voting in Bern on Saturday 
 
 The proposal also included a measure to limit overpopulation abroad by devoting 10% of Switzerland's overseas aid to family planning in developing countries. 
 
 Opponents, among them all the major political parties, argued that the proposals would be bad for the economy because business leaders wanted to be able to recruit skilled labour from across Europe. 
 
 They also feared that if passed, the measure could put the country in breach of its international commitments and damage its image. 
 
 Many environmental groups argued that if the Swiss really wanted to protect their environment, they should adjust their own lifestyles, the BBC's Imogen Foulkes said. 
 
 Immigration in Switzerland 
 
 Image copyright Swiss Social Archives Image caption Switzerland recruited high numbers of foreign workers in the 1950s and 1960s 
 
 Switzerland's population is about 8.18 million - of whom 1.96 million are not Swiss nationals, according to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO) 
 
 EU citizens make up the vast majority of immigrants in Switzerland 
 
 The largest group of foreign nationals living in Switzerland is Italians; immigration from Italy started more than a century ago, but difficulties getting Swiss nationality meant many families remained Italian 
 
 The second largest group comes from Germany, and the third largest comes from the former Yugoslavia. 
 
 What is behind Swiss 'Ecopop' vote? ||||| GENEVA (AFP) - 
 
 Swiss voters Sunday will decide whether to dramatically cut immigration numbers in the name of saving the environment, in a referendum that opponents have labelled xenophobic and disastrous for the economy. 
 
 Most voters have already cast their ballots by mail, and initial results should be available shortly after polls close at noon (1100 GMT). 
 
 Surveys have shown the so-called Ecopop initiative gaining momentum in recent weeks but still indicate it is doomed to fail. 
 
 In the latest opinion poll, 56 percent said they would nix the proposal which maintains that the current influx of foreigners is swelling the Alpine nation's population and shrinking its idyllic landscapes and green spaces. 
 
 Supporters however stress that surveys often underestimate backing for populist initiatives and insist the country could be in for a surprise. 
 
 It would not be the first time. 
 
 Last February, the approval of an initiative demanding quotas for immigration from the European Union caught many off guard and threw non-member Switzerland's relations with the bloc into turmoil. 
 
 - 'Already too crowded' - 
 
 Foreign nationals already make up nearly a quarter of Switzerland's eight million inhabitants, official statistics show. 
 
 According to Ecopop, immigration is adding 1.1-1.4 percent annually to the Swiss population, putting the country on track to house up to 12 million people by 2050. 
 
 "It's already getting too crowded here," Anita Messere of the Ecopop committee said, arguing that the inhabitable plains of the mountainous country were being covered in concrete at a rate of more than one metre (yard) per second. 
 
 The campaign wants to cap immigration growth at 0.2 percent, or an addition of around 16,000 people annually, which it says would allow the number of inhabitants to increase to just 8.5 million by the middle of the century. 
 
 It also wants to help rein in over-population beyond Switzerland's borders, calling for 10 percent of the country's development aid budget to go to family planning initiatives abroad. 
 
 The government, all political parties, employers and unions have rejected the initiative, slammed by some as xenophobic and by others as a threat to Switzerland's economy which depends heavily on immigrant labour. 
 
 Christian Luescher, a parliamentarian for the Liberal Party and co-chair of the committee opposing Ecopop, described the initiative as "absolutely absurd". 
 
 "It aims to drastically, linearly and arbitrarily reduce immigration to Switzerland, with absolutely no consideration for the needs of the economy," he told AFP, warning it would "impoverish our country". 
 
 - Tax hikes for rich foreigners? - 
 
 The Swiss will also vote Sunday in two other national referenda as part of their famed direct democratic system. 
 
 Polls hint voters are also likely to reject a bid to scrap special tax breaks for rich foreigners living but not working in Switzerland, who today can choose to be levied on their spending rather than income. 
 
 Switzerland counts 5,729 millionaires and billionaires with foreign passports, who together pay around one billion Swiss francs ($1.04 billion, 830 million euros) in taxes annually. 
 
 That is a far cry from what they would have paid had they been levied at the same percentages as average Swiss taxpayers, say the left-leaning parties and unions behind the initiative. 
 
 "This system is morally indefensible," Geneva-based student Roger Gulke told AFP. 
 
 But backers of the system insist wealthy foreigners contribute substantially to Swiss tax coffers and inject huge sums directly into the local economy, warning many will leave the country if they face higher taxation. 
 
 "You'd have to be completely crazy to wave goodbye to this godsend to our economy," Luescher said. 
 
 The third issue on the table is a call to force Switzerland's central bank to increase its gold reserves and it also appears destined to fail, according to polls. 
 
 But fear of a surprise win has stirred up global gold markets, with economists warning it would wreak havoc on trading worldwide. 
 
 The initiative would oblige the Swiss National Bank to boost its gold reserves to at least 20 percent of its holdings, nearly three times more than today's level of seven percent. 
 
 Analysts have warned the bank would be forced to buy around 10 percent of the annual global gold production through 2019 to meet that requirement. 
 
 by Nina Larson 
 
 © 2014 AFP
– Switzerland has rejected a proposed rule to make major cuts to immigration—a measure that supporters backed as eco-friendly. It called for limiting immigration growth to 0.2% of the population each year in order to protect the country's beauty against overcrowding, AFP reports. That would have meant cutting the number of immigrants from about 80,000 per year to 16,000, the BBC notes, in a country where some 23% of the population is foreign. The rejection by 74% of voters comes as little surprise following polls on the matter. All the country's political parties opposed it, AFP notes, citing xenophobia and economic concerns. But in Switzerland, if supporters of a movement get enough signatures, the country must hold a referendum on the matter, the BBC reports. And immigration wasn't the only issue the country voted on today, the AP reports. Another effort called for the Swiss national bank to keep a fifth of its reserves in the form of gold, a move which would have required vast gold purchases in the coming years had it not been opposed by 78% of voters.