Swiss signatures scam: firms also acted without a mandate, authorities say

Not only unpaid activists gather names for initiatives and referendums in Switzerland's direct democracy. Keystone-SDA

The issue of fake signatures for initiatives and referendums has taken a new twist: some firms gathered signatures without having a mandate, before pressuring committees to accept them,

This damages both the rights of voters as well as the integrity of the collection process, the Federal Chancellery wrote on Tuesday. It has informed committees behind people’s initiatives and referendums currently at the stage of collecting signatures.

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The Federal Chancellery referred to a criminal complaint about which it was informed on Friday. According to the complaint, certain firms which collect signatures for referendums in exchange for a fee are alleged to have gathered names without a mandate, before then pressuring committees into making a purchase.

The problem with this is that if someone signs a petition for a referendum on a form held out by an employee of one of the organisations, the signature may end up not being submitted because the committee responsible rejects the purchase, the Federal Chancellery wrote. In such cases, citizens who give their support to a petition are misled, the authorities said.

The Federal Chancellery wants to prevent this and similar forms of abuse of democratic rights by monitoring the signature-collection procedures more closely.

In Switzerland, 100,000 valid signatures are required to force a vote on a people’s initiative; 50,000 are needed to bring a referendum on a parliamentary decision

Adapted from German by DeepL/dos

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