Swiss Press: Trust in democracy is cracked
The Swiss press has described the Federal Statistical Office’s (FSO) calculation error as an embarrassment, a debacle, and a fiasco. Trust in democracy is at stake when it comes to tallying election results, according to commentaries published on Thursday.
"Embarrassing!" is written on the View-Thursday's front page. All in View-style, the newspaper summarized the calculation error of the FSO in one word. Other newspapers also found clear words.
"Democracy lives on trust in those who count," Tamedia wrote. The ridicule from abroad is less bad than the mistrust that such errors feed among those prone to conspiracy theories, he added. "The model country of democracy should actually be able to calculate such results correctly," Tamedia wrote.
According to Tamedia, the cause of the error is typical for federalist Switzerland. Both Appenzell and Glarus supplied their data in a different format than the other cantons.
Late communication
The FSO discovered the error on Tuesday and communicated it on Wednesday, CH Media wrote. "This is unacceptable," the corresponding commentary said. The post-control of the election results only took place on Tuesday, CH Media wrote. The justification that this was done because of the many media inquiries is a pretextual argument that exposes the priorities in the FSO. Such an error should not happen at the outset. The election results would have to be checked for plausibility.
The explanation for the breakdown evaluates the New Zurich Newspaper as the worst thing about the matter. According to the report, the program in the background made multiple counts. "Apparently entirely without thorough plausibility checks," wrote the NZZ.
Digitalization showcase project
According to the newspaper, there were first indications of incorrect election data already on election Sunday. Various editorial offices quickly drew the attention of the FSO to the errors. The cantons were to blame, the FSO said. The errors were being corrected.
The problem continues according to the NZZ deeper than the evaluation of the individual cantonal data. The processing of election data had long been considered a showcase project for digitization and data culture at the federal level. Switzerland can consider itself lucky that the advocates of electronic voting have not yet prevailed, comments the NZZ. Then it would no longer be possible to look at the ballots again. "If such a technical error happens with e-voting, where this is often no longer possible, the trust in democracy would be gone for good," wrote the NZZ. (SDA)
