Political scandals are very rare in Switzerland, where everyone seems to get along in a civilised manner, despite the divergence of views.

Also, the Swiss are mostly honest, at least in comparison to other nations. 

Therefore, a recent revelation that signatures on some petitions involving popular initiatives were forged sparked outrage in various circles.

What happened?

When a citizen-driven initiative is launched, supporters start gathering the required number of valid signatures — 100,000 must be collected within 18 months for a federal vote; 50,000 are required to challenge an existing law.

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Often, these signatures are collected by volunteers from the group that spearheads the initiative.

But sometimes, this task is ‘outsourced’ to companies, which are paid by the number of signatures they manage to collect.

It is suspected that the forgery originates with the latter.

How are signatures verified?

Individual municipalities are responsible for checking whether the person in question is entered in the electoral register on the basis of the information provided, such as a surname, first name, address, and date of birth.

Once verified, the petition is passed on to the Federal Chancellery (for federal votes) or cantonal one (for cantonal votes) to re-verify the signatures and announce whether or not a popular initiative or referendum has been successful.

What went wrong?

Signatures should be ‘valid’ — that is, the person signing the petition much be at least 18 years old and a Swiss citizen.

However, according to allegations made earlier this week by Tamedia media group, thousands of signatures for popular initiatives had been forged, with around a dozen federal popular votes held based on forged signatures.

According to the Federal Chancellery, however, there is currently no reliable evidence to suggest that votes were actually held on proposals that were not legally valid.

What happens now?

Various criminal investigations are underway, including by the Office of the Attorney General.  

In the meantime, experts are hoping the scandal will not tarnish Switzerland’s unique system of direct democracy.

“If there was systematic and large-scale fraud, as it appears to be, then this is a huge problem for our democracy, said Martin Hilti, managing director of Transparency International Switzerland.

In terms of concrete measures, the Foundation for Direct Democracy called on the Federal Council and parliament to take immediate measures to put an end to the commercial collection of signatures for initiatives and referendums.