Complaints deadline for private intervention in election campaigns clarified
Published: Friday, Aug 9th 2024, 12:20
Updated At: Saturday, Aug 10th 2024, 01:59
العودة إلى البث المباشر
In the event of a complaint against the intervention of a private actor in an election campaign, the announcement of the election result can be awaited. This was decided by the Federal Supreme Court in connection with critical media reports in 2023 about the unelected Geneva State Council candidate Philippe Morel. However, it rejected the appeal.
Between the two ballots in April 2023, an online medium published an article targeting Philippe Morel from the Mouvement Citoyen Genevois (MCG). The doctor was wrongly accused of having improperly given preference to a citizen of the United Arab Emirates for a liver transplant in 2006. Several media outlets took up the issue.
In the second round of voting, Morel fell back to ninth place. On the day the results were published on May 3, a citizen of Geneva called for the election to be annulled in view of the media hype that Morel had fallen victim to. This is the result of a ruling by the Federal Supreme Court published on Friday.
Start of the period
The Geneva Cantonal Court did not accept the complaint. It was of the opinion that the six-day deadline for filing a complaint began to run on the day after the first article about Morel appeared. According to the cantonal court, the complainant should not have waited for the publication of the election results.
The Federal Supreme Court takes a different view. In a leading judgment, it states that this was not an official measure in the run-up to an election, but an intervention by private actors.
This was not a "violation of the course of electoral procedures" under cantonal law, for which a period of six days applies. The complainant was therefore able to wait for the results to be published.
No effect on election
As a result, however, the contested cantonal ruling is not objectionable according to the Federal Supreme Court. Private actions could indeed result in a violation of the free will of the voters.
However, an election would only be annulled for this reason in exceptional cases and with great reluctance and could not be justified in the present case. Morel's result speaks against an obvious or at least very probable influence of the media reports on the outcome of the election. (Judgment 1C_266/2023 of 4.7.2024)
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