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 election

(courtesy of wikipedia)

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.