UPDATE: Swiss digital ID law may get cancelled and possibly be up for a revote
TL;DR:
The referendum committee that opposed the Swiss e-ID wants the vote to be annulled.
[…] referendum committee claims the vote was unduly influenced by “illicit interference by state-controlled Swisscom.” Swisscom is a private company but it is majority-owned by the Confederation (the Swiss state) with such companies expected to be bound by political neutrality, and not influencing the democratic process.
CONTEXT:
Swiss citizens voted in favor of a government move to introduce a digital ID in a narrow referendum result, with 50.39 percent of voters in support.
In its appeal, the referendum committee against the digital identity law asserts that Swisscom donated 30,000 Swiss Francs (US$37,780) to a pro-eID committee and asked a senior executive to promote the project publicly. Additionally, it claims Switzerland’s umbrella organization for digitalization, the Digitalswitzerland Foundation, which has Swisscom’s CEO sitting on its board, donated CHF 150,000 ($188,925) to the pro-eID committee.
The referendum committee believes Swisscom’s involvements are in contravention of the freedom to vote, which is backed by the federal constitution, and further claims the financial assistance was “concealed.”
THERE’S HOPE
Such voting repeats are rare and hinge on the result being very close and the appeal needing to be filed quickly. Both of these conditions are satisfied in this case, but the contravention must also be consequential enough to have influenced citizens to vote in a certain way.
Thank you to @ Janell1991 from Tech Lore for alerting me.