Federal Council wants trials with electronic signature collections
Published: Wednesday, Nov 20th 2024, 14:00
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The Federal Council wants to enable limited, practical trials with the electronic collection of signatures for referendums. It has commissioned the Federal Chancellery with a preliminary project to prepare such trials.
The national government made its decision at its meeting on Wednesday. On the same occasion, the Federal Council also adopted a report on the topic of e-collecting.
The report states that there is potential for modernization in the current system of collecting signatures for initiatives and referendums, according to the communiqué. Practical experience is now needed in order to be able to assess the impact of electronic signature collection on the use of people's rights and possible risks. E-collecting should not replace the collection of signatures on paper, but rather supplement it.
For this reason, the Federal Council also recommends the adoption of several identical motions from the FDP, Center, GLP, Green and SP parliamentary groups calling for such pilot trials. However, it rejects two more far-reaching motions calling for the rapid introduction of electronic signature collections.
In September, media reports about possibly illegal practices by paid signature collectors, particularly in French-speaking Switzerland, and about suspected forged signatures triggered a debate about new rules for signature collections.
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