Council of States bends over motions on “signature scam”
Published: Wednesday, Dec 11th 2024, 05:40
Back to Live Feed
On Wednesday (today), the Council of States will discuss alleged fraud in the collection of signatures for popular initiatives or referendums. It has been presented with three motions whose authors are calling for measures to combat abuse.
The Neuchâtel SP member of the Council of States Baptiste Hurni, who wants a ban on paid signature collections, goes the furthest. Glarus FDP member of the Council of States Benjamin Mühlemann wants a legal basis for such collections to take place digitally in future.
Carlo Sommaruga, member of the SP Council of States in Geneva, would like to create more transparency in this area with disclosure obligations for initiative committees.
The Federal Council rejects these proposals. Among other things, it says that a comprehensive ban on paid signature collection could restrict access to popular rights for certain actors. A ban could mean that only groups with established structures would be able to obtain the necessary number of signatures.
In contrast, the Federal Council says yes to a proposal by Matthias Michel (FDP/ZG) calling for a pilot project for the electronic collection of signatures. The Council of States will also decide on this on Wednesday. The Federal Council has already commissioned such a project.
Criminal charges have been filed
At the beginning of September, the Tamedia newspapers reported that thousands of signatures for popular initiatives were allegedly forged in Switzerland. The Federal Chancellery filed criminal charges against persons unknown back in 2022 and has since added new suspected cases several times, according to its own statements.
The Federal Chancellery recently held an initial roundtable discussion to draw up a code of conduct for collection activities together with interest groups.
©Keystone/SDA
English 
German 
French 
Spanish 
Arabic