Swiss prosecutors probe alleged electoral fraud scam

Investigation into possible fraud in signature collections Keystone-SDA

Swiss prosecutors are investigating allegations that companies have fraudulently manipulated popular initiatives by faking signatures needed to trigger such referendums.

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“Proceedings are currently underway against various natural persons and against persons unknown,” the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) told Keystone-SDA news agency as it confirmed the probe into suspected electoral fraud.

As part of the proceedings in question, the OAG and the Federal Office of Police have carried out house searches and interviewed suspects.

The allegations were first reported on Monday by the Tamedia group. They wrote that people behind the Citizens Service initiative had become suspicious because of the large number of invalid signatures and had filed a criminal complaint.

The association Incop, which was set up to support the launch of popular initiatives, is accused of collecting the signatures in question in return for money.

In some cases, entire sheets had apparently been copied from older petitions. Incop could not initially be reached by telephone by Keystone-SDA.

No political pattern

The OAG did not say which initiatives were affected or name any parties involved in its proceedings. It appears that other popular initiatives and commercial signature collectors are also affected.

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Vincent Duvoisin, head of the communes and cantons department at the Vaud cantonal administration, told Tamedia newspapers that several communes had already contacted the canton at the beginning of 2019 about possible cases of fraud. The communes were then asked to systematically report irregularities.

According to the canton of Vaud, no clear political pattern emerged. Among the dozen or so petitions for referendums that were found to have the most falsified signatures were those from the right-wing conservative camp as well as those with ecological concerns – and initiatives that could not be clearly identified in terms of party politics.

Federal Chancellery also complained

The initiatives concerned included the pro-nuclear initiative “Stop the blackout”, the SVP neutrality initiative, the livestock farming initiative and the initiative for a ban on the import of cruelly produced fur products.

One of the criminal complaints on the subject comes from the Federal Chancellery, as it confirmed on request. The complaint was submitted in 2022 and has been amended several times since then. “The reports of suspected cases concern around a dozen federal popular initiatives to varying degrees,” wrote spokesperson Urs Bruderer.

The main focus is on signature lists from municipalities in French-speaking Switzerland, although since last winter there have also been an increasing number of suspicious reports from German-speaking Switzerland.

‘Democracy for sale’

According to Bruderer, it is crucial for the Federal Chancellery that suspected cases of signature forgery are reported: “The signature lists in question have all been made available to the prosecution authorities.”

Initial reactions called for a ban on the commercial collection of signatures. The Greens wanted to try to achieve such a ban as quickly as possible, wrote Zurich Green National Councillor Balthasar Glättli on the X platform (formerly Twitter). There must be limits to “democracy for sale”.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga

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