Green light for electronic signature collection trials
Keystone-SDA
Parliamentary committees recommend that initiative and referendum committees in Switzerland should collect signatures electronically on a trial basis.
+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
After the House of Representatives, the relevant committee of the Senate approved the creation of a legal basis for this by 11 votes to 1.
+ Could digital collection lead to more Swiss initiatives?
A phase of intensive experimentation must take place before the definitive introduction of this instrument. Trials must be limited geographically.
The Senate committee unanimously called for the provisions on respect for the secrecy of the vote and the risks of abuse to be clarified.
+ Signature scam reveals cracks in Swiss system
As part of the amendment to the Federal Act on Political Rights, the committee also approved the provisions on voting by blind and partially sighted people. They must be able to vote independently and in secrecy. Voting should not just be made easier, but also possible.
Following committees of both chambers also support the addition of a provision on the promotion of democracy and citizenship education. This provision should give an impetus to the promotion of citizenship education, which is of key importance to Switzerland’s system of direct democracy.
On the other hand, the Senate committee voted 9-3 against the idea of imposing more constraints on the Federal Council when allocating voting dates.
More
More
First Swiss platform for digital signature collection presented
Adapted from French by AI/mga
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.
Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch
