Federal Supreme Court rejects cancellation of vote on e-ID
Keystone-SDA
The Federal Supreme Court has rejected a legal bid to overturn a referendum that paves the way for e-IDs in Switzerland.
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In September, voters approved the introduction of an electronic proof of identity (e-ID) with a slim majority of 50.39%.
Subsequent legal objections centered on whether financial donations paid to supporters of the popular initiative unfairly inluenced the vote outcome.
Two judges expressed strong criticism of Swisscom, the state-owned telecoms provider, which donated CHF30,000 to the pro-committee. They argued that this amounted to indirect government propaganda and was therefore unconstitutional.
+ Five lessons from Swiss voter aproval of e-IDs
However, the other three judges ruled that the objections had been filed too late, thus declaring them inadmissible.
The court also addressed the fact that the pro-vote side only disclosed donations from private media outlets (TX Group and Ringier) shortly before the vote.
But this irregularity was not deemed sufficient to create deception among voters and therefore did not influence the outcome of the vote, the court hearing ruled.
+ Read about the Swiss court ruling in 2019 overturning a vote on family taxation
The bar is raised high for a court to overturn a referendum result, and has only happened once. In 2019, the Supreme Court has annulled the result of a controversial nationwide vote about tax breaks for families
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Adapted from German by AI/mga
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