Description of Electoral System:

(courtesy of IFES election guide)

The President is appointed by the Federal Parliament to serve a 1-year term. In the Council of States (Standerat, Conseil des Etats, or Consiglio degli Stati) 46 members are to serve 4-year terms. In the National Council (Nationalrat, Conseil National, or Consiglio Nazionale) 200 members are elected by popular vote via proportional representation to serve 4-year terms. The Council of States, consists of 46 members, two elected from each of 20 cantons and one from each of the six half-cantons, according to cantonal procedure.

Electoral Systems Snapshot

(Courtesy of International IDEA)

*Click on links for definitions

WANT MORE ELECTION RELATED STATS FOR SWITZERLAND? Go to "election databases" on the left-hand menu of this page OR comparative data on the right-hand menu and choose your area of interest.

Most Recent Referendum

(courtesy of wikipedia)

The most recent referendum was held on September 27, 2009. The voters were deciding about two issues: a limited increase of VAT to continue financing the Disability Insurance (Invalidenversicherung) and accepting the decision not to introduce public initiatives (allgemeine Volksinitiativen), which has been deemed impossible for procedural reasons.

Both proposals were accepted, abolishing the public initiatives with a 67.9% majority and the financing of the Disability Insurance with a close majority of 54.4%.

Most Recent Election

(courtesy of wikipedia)

2007 Parliamentary Elections

Elections to the Swiss Federal Assembly, the federal parliament of Switzerland, were held on Sunday, October 21, 2007. In a few cantons, a second round of the elections to the Council of States were held on 11 November, 18 November or 25 November. For the 48th legislative term of the federal parliament, voters in 26 cantons elected all 200 members of the National Council as well as 43 out of 46 members of the Council of States. The other members of the Council of States for that term of service were elected at an earlier date.

The main result was the consolidation of the leading position of the populist Swiss People's Party, at 29 percent of the popular vote, and the growth of the Green and Green Liberal parties (gaining seven and three new seats respectively) at the expense of the Social Democrats (who lost nine seats).

Past Elections

(courtesy of wikipedia)

2003 Legislative Elections

Legislative elections in the Swiss Confederation were held on 19 October 2003. Although in Switzerland's peculiar political system, in which all four major parties form a coalition, it's very hard to achieve a change of government, this election produced an upset in the strong showing of the right-wing, anti-European Union and anti-immigration Swiss People's Party. The left wing parties, the Socialists and the Greens, also improved their positions. The losers were the parties of the centre-right, the Christian Democratic People's Party and the Free Democratic Party.

In the aftermath of the elections Ruth Metzler-Arnold, one of the two Christian Democrats in the Federal Council was replaced by Christoph Blocher, the most influential politician in the Swiss People's Party.

Image: flickr/erik.schiegg