Parliament wants to enable trial operation with e-collecting
Keystone-SDA
Swiss parliament wants to create a legal basis for trials with electronically collected signatures for initiatives and referendums. On Thursday, the Senate, as the second chamber, approved a corresponding bill. However, there are still differences in the details.
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According to the provision in the Federal Act on Political Rights adopted by both chambers, there is now a basis for collecting the necessary signatures for a House of Representatives candidature by means of so-called e-collecting. In principle, this was undisputed in Parliament. It is important to both chambers that an intensive trial phase takes place before the definitive introduction of this instrument.
In contrast to the House of Representatives, the Senate was in favour of these trials being localised. This is also what the federal government wants. The small chamber also clarified the provisions regarding the protection of voting secrecy and abuse.
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Swiss give green light for electronic signature collection trials
The bill also includes a whole series of other changes in the area of political rights. These include making it easier for people with visual impairments to fill in ballot papers without assistance in future.
The bill now goes back to the House.
Translated from German by AI/jdp
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