GENEVA (AFP) - Swiss voters on Sunday rejected controversial reforms that would have made it easier for children and grandchildren of immigrants to gain citizenship in the country, final results showed.
The poll followed a campaign marked by virulent anti-foreigner advertising by right-wing opponents that triggered condemnation from the rest of the country`s main political parties.
Fifty-two percent of Swiss voters rejected draft legislation, which had been passed by the Swiss parliament, granting automatic citizenship to the grandchildren of immigrants.
Another government proposal easing citizenship procedures for the children of foreigners who have settled and been schooled in Switzerland was rejected by 57 percent of Swiss voters.
Official results from the 23 full cantons also indicated a split between the country`s main linguistic communities, with mainly rural German-speaking eastern areas of Switzerland rejecting the reform and most francophone western regions clearly approving it.
More moderate opponents also feared that local communities would lose some of their say in citizenship bids.
Claudio Micheloni of the Forum of Migrants Organisations blasted the outcome "was the result of a completely unacceptable campaign".
"The campaign preyed on the most negative aspects of humanity," he told Swiss television.
A lobby group for the children of immigrant familes, IG-Secondos, said it was "disgusted" by the outcome.
"The Swiss are telling us `you can pay and work, but you`re not good enough to become Swiss`," said IG-Secondos representative Valerie Lucchesi.
Immigrant communities and the country`s main trade union grouping said they had filed a legal complaint about campaigning by members of the right-wing Swiss People`s Party (SVP).
Leaflets and newspaper advertisements had warned of a massive growth in the Muslim population if the draft legislation had been approved.
Opponents had also used posters depicting the hands of dark-skinned youngsters grabbing Swiss passports.
The SVP became the largest political party in the country at the general election last year with 27 percent of the vote, and is one of the four governing parties.
The bulk of its support is in the majority German speaking part of the country.
Hans Fehr, an SVP parliamentarian, said the legislation would have led to a sharp growth in the number of ex-Yugoslavs seeking Swiss citizenship.
"The population in most of the country understood that we would have been heading for a balkanisation of Switzerland" he added.
Fehr said the result -- the second rejection in 11 years -- was neither the product of fear or hatred of foreigners.
Politicians from other parties admitted they had underestimated their opponents after opinion polls last month had indicated a clear majority in favour of the reform, including a cut in residency requirements from 12 to eight years.
"We lacked the means to react to the SVP`s campaign," said conservative Radical Party (FDP) politician Dominique de Buman.
Some 37,000 citizenship applications were lodged last year and federal authorities had hoped to encourage up to 15,000 more bids and cut the relatively high proportion of foreign residents -- 20 percent.
An emboldened SVP said it would press ahead with campaigns to outlaw dual citizenship and to allow local voters to be the final arbitor of each Swiss citizenship application.