Facts
On June 24, 2018, the renewal election of the members of the Administrative Court of the Canton of Zug for the term of office 2019-2024 took place. [C.] was elected with 9,736 votes, while [A.] , the candidate of party [B.] , did not reach the absolute majority with 4,508 votes and was not elected. [C.] resigned from her position as a part-time administrative judge on April 14, 2022, after having moved her residence to the Canton of Zurich on August 31, 2021.
On September 25, 2022, a by-election for [C.] 's seat took place, in which [A.] was again not elected. [A.] and party [B.] then filed a criminal complaint against [C.] for alleged electoral fraud and constituted themselves as private prosecutors. However, the Public Prosecutor's Office and the High Court of the Canton of Zug rejected the admission of the complainants as private prosecutors.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court confirmed the rejection of the admission as private prosecutors. It stated that the protected legal interest of electoral fraud under Art. 282 of the Swiss Criminal Code is the correct determination of the will of the people, and not the individual interests of the candidates or the sponsors of the electoral proposals. Therefore, the complainants, who only assert a political, professional and personal interest in the election, are not victims within the meaning of Art. 115 para. 1 of the Swiss…