Zug repeats botched vote on transparency initiative
Published: Tuesday, Aug 13th 2024, 09:40
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On September 22, the canton of Zug will once again decide whether the financing of politics should become more transparent. Voters already voted on the corresponding initiative and counter-proposal on June 9. However, the ballot was declared invalid on the Sunday of the vote.
The government council cited the perforated ballot papers used for the first time as the reason for this. These were intended to make it easier for the municipalities to determine the result.
Because there is a counter-proposal to the transparency initiative of the Alternative - the Greens (ALG), voters are presented with three questions, including a run-off question. The ballot paper on June 9 therefore consisted of three parts which, thanks to the perforation, could be divided by the polling stations for counting.
Ballot split
In order to cast a valid vote, citizens had to put all three parts of the ballot paper in the voting envelope, even if they did not answer all the questions. However, some people split the ballot paper and submitted it incomplete. In the majority of municipalities, the incomplete ballot papers were counted as valid even though they were invalid.
The voters of Zug will therefore have to vote again on the transparency initiative on September 22. The cantonal government is now playing it safe: it has decided that unperforated ballot papers will be used.
Disclose donations
The constitutional initiative demands that the parties represented in the cantonal council must disclose their financing and that of their voting and election campaigns. Donations from private individuals of over CHF 5,000 and donations from companies of over CHF 1,000 should be declared in future.
The government and parliament only want to enshrine the issue in the constitution with a lean article. The specific details - such as the threshold values in Swiss francs - are to be regulated in a law.
According to the minutes of the first vote published by the government council, the counter-proposal would have been approved on June 9.
©Keystone/SDA
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