New worrying revelations for semi-direct democracy. Following an increase in falsified signatures when submitting popular initiatives, the Federal Chancellery has strengthened its controls. She recently uncovered “massive irregularities” concerning an object deposited, said Saturday the Daily Gazette.
Guarantor of respect for the rights and rules of democracy, the body confirmed to the Zurich media that it had noted 3,626 false signatures following the submission at the beginning of October of the initiative known as “for a safe supply of medicines”. Supported by health circles, the text was validated shortly before Christmas with 108,709 signatures. What the authorities did not communicate at that time was that a particularly high rate of falsified initials had been detected. Even more disturbing, 3,308 of the 3,626 imitations discovered come from Geneva. However, the municipalities and the canton had previously approved the data.
A professional network?
Did they make a mistake? Questioned by “Tagi”, the Geneva State Chancellery ensures “to carry out a rigorous and careful verification of the data provided in order to certify that the person concerned has the right to vote”. In her defense, it seems that she rightly tipped Berne’s ear in this case, reporting “a higher than average disability rate.” The Federal Chancellery would therefore have been more vigilant with the data coming from this region.
According to the German-speaking newspaper, it could be a fraud attributable to a single person or in any case to a restricted circle. Member of the committee of the initiative for the security of the supply of medicines, lawyer Andreas Feller obtained access to part of the incriminated data. According to him, “forensic analyzes showed that the data was clearly written by the same hand.”
The pressure is building
The initiative committee ensures that it is cooperating with the authorities and specifies that it has commissioned two companies specializing in collecting signatures. These would have a “better reputation” than the Lausanne company splashed this fall during the first revelations on the falsified signatures scandal.
But disturbing questions are once again being asked about the methods of collecting initials, with voices denouncing for years the possibility of paying people for this task. Criminal complaints have already been filed for other initiatives. At this stage, justice has not yet been activated in this new case. Or rather not yet…
