Political System Rocked By Referendum Signature Fraud Allegations

The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has launched an investigation into the potentially fraudulent collection of signatures needed to trigger referendums, a key component of Switzerland's unique political system of direct democracy. Under the system of referendums, petitions collecting 50k signatures can trigger a public vote on laws passed by the parliament, while those garnering 100k signatures can bring forward referendums to alter the Swiss constitution.

• On 2 September, Tages-Anzeiger reported that companies being used by advocacy groups or campaigns to gather signatures were in turn submitting false names. As Reuters notes, "one company had offered to provide a referendum campaign with 10,000 signatures at a price of 4.50 Swiss francs ($5.29) each. Local authorities later found between 35% and 90% of signatures were invalid, much higher than the normal invalidity rate of 8% to 12%, [...][ Among the problems were addresses of signatories which did not exist, or signatures from people who had not lived in the area for several years,"
• Noemie Roten at the Citizen Service group said in an interview that the story "could indeed jeopardize the confidence that Swiss citizens have in direct democracy.”
• The Federal Chancellery has said that it has received some indication that 12 popular initiatives may have been affected but gave no indication of which, adding that it did not believe that the referendums took place because of false signatures.
• Some senior politicians have now called for signature-collecting firms to be banned. It remains to be seen whether such a ban could diminish the number of referendums taking place each year.