Swiss citizens were on track on Sunday to impose some of the world's strictest controls on executive pay, giving shareholders in public companies a binding vote on compensation, initial result projections showed.

A projection by polling institute Gfs.Bern for Swiss state television based on early results showed 70 percent backed plans to give shareholders a veto on executive compensation and ban big payouts for new hires and departing managers.

Support for the proposal was fired by anger over the big bonuses blamed for fuelling risky investments that nearly felled Swiss bank UBS , as well as outrage over a $78 million (51 million pounds) payment to outgoing Novartis chairman Daniel Vasella.

(Reporting by Emma Thomasson; Editing by Louise Ireland)