Federal prosecutor's office investigating fraud Suspicion of "signature fraud" in many initiatives

Commercial companies are alleged to have cheated when collecting signatures for popular initiatives. This involves forged signatures. The Office of the Attorney General is investigating suspected electoral fraud.

The allegations were first reported by the Tamedia newspapers: Swiss democracy is being shaken by a signature scam.

People behind the Service Citoyen initiative had become suspicious because of many invalid signatures and filed criminal charges. The company Incop collected the signatures in question in return for money.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) is now investigating electoral fraud. The OAG and the Federal Office of Police have already carried out house searches and questionings as part of the relevant proceedings.

"The proceedings are currently underway against various natural persons and against persons unknown," the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland informed the Keystone-SDA news agency in response to an inquiry. In some cases, entire sheets from older referendums had apparently been copied. Incop could not initially be reached by telephone by Keystone-SDA.

No political pattern

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland did not comment on which initiatives were involved or against whom the proceedings were directed. It appears that other popular initiatives and commercial signature collectors are also affected.

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 is active

The initiatives concerned included the pro-nuclear initiative "Stop the blackout", the neutrality initiative, the livestock farming initiative and the initiative for a ban on the import of fur products produced in a cruel manner.

One of the criminal complaints on the subject comes from the Federal Chancellery, as confirmed by the latter 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.

As far as the concrete consequences of the suspected forgeries are concerned, however, Bruderer is not currently assuming a worst-case scenario: "There are no indications that popular initiatives or referendums have been put to the vote thanks to forged signatures." On the contrary, the number of signatures declared invalid by the municipalities suggests that the checks on the validity of submitted signatures are working.

Ban called for

According to Bruderer, it is crucial for the Federal Chancellery that suspected cases of forged signatures 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".

The piquant thing is that a ban on paid signature collection was rejected in the National Council in 2021. By 123 votes to 61 with one abstention, the large chamber voted against a motion at the time, which was therefore tabled.

The Greens and SP supported the motion by former SP National Councillor Mathias Reynard (VS). The SVP, FDP, Center Party and GLP voted against it. The Federal Council also spoke out against a ban. Such a ban would be "disproportionate and not expedient", argued the then Federal Chancellor Walter Thurnherr.

"No longer isolated cases"

The Foundation for Direct Democracy believes that the Federal Council and parliament have a responsibility to "immediately stop" the commercial collection of signatures, as it writes. Clubs, associations and parties whose employees collect signatures for their own or supported causes should be exempt.

It is "no longer about individual cases", the foundation further criticized in response to the media report. It is about a system that has gone off the rails, which can no longer meet security requirements and needs to be readjusted.

The Foundation for Direct Democracy ensures the operation of the Wecollect democracy platform and provides digital tools for launching initiatives and referendums free of charge, as it writes on its website.