Swiss investigate alleged referendum fraud

ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss prosecutors have opened a fraud investigation into the collection of false signatures to trigger a referendum - touching on a cornerstone of the country's tradition of direct democracy.

The Federal Chancellery, whose role is to oversee elections, said in a statement it has filed criminal charges with the federal prosecutor against unknown persons.

Swiss Federal Chancellor Viktor Rossi said he was taking the issue very seriously.

"The falsification of signatures in order to make money is an abuse of our direct democracy," he told broadcaster SRF.

Because of time constraints to get enough signatures, some campaigns have turned to companies to help them collect enough names. The companies are  paid for the service, leading to allegations that some have submitted false data.

In Switzerland, 100,000 signatures are needed to trigger an initiative, which proposes a change to the country's constitution and 50,000 for a referendum on laws passed by parliament.

Once triggered, the referendum leads to a national vote, with polls in recent years into issues such as buying new fighter jets and banning facial coverings, which became known as the "burqa ban".

The Federal Chancellery lodged a criminal complaint with the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) in 2022, which has since been expanded. It said it is also preparing a second criminal complaint.

The Chancellery said it had received indications of false signatures affecting around 12 popular initiatives, but declined to say which.

Still, it did not think votes had taken place largely due to the use of false signatures.

The OAG said it has launched several investigations on the suspicion of voter fraud, and has carried out house searches and confiscated property. It declined to give more details, citing an ongoing inquiry.

Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger, which first revealed the investigation, said one company had offered to provide a referendum campaign with 10,000 signatures at a price of 4.50 Swiss francs ($5.29) each.

Local authorities later found between 35% and 90% of signatures were invalid, much higher than the normal invalidity rate of 8% to 12%, the paper said. 

Among the problems were addresses of signatories which did not exist, or signatures from people who had not lived in the area for several years, the Tages-Anzeiger said.

Checks of signatures have now been stepped up, while senior lawmakers have also called for the paid collection of signatures to be banned.

($1 = 0.8499 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Sharon Singleton)