Federal elections were held in Switzerland on 22 October 2023 to elect all members of the National Council and Council of States. The elections were followed by elections to the Federal Council, Switzerland's government and collegial presidency, on 13 December.
The Swiss People's Party (SVP), which campaigned against migration, performed strongly, while the Green and Green Liberal parties saw their vote share decline.
Timeline.
The election timeline is:
Electoral system.
National Council.
The 200 members of the National Council are elected from the 26 cantons, each of which constitutes a constituency. In all multi-member cantons open-list proportional representation is used; with apparentments for allied parties and sub-apparentments for lists within parties, where apparented lists are initially counted together for seats allocation. Seats are allocated using the Hagenbach-Bischoff system with no threshold. Voters may cross out names on party lists or write names twice, split their vote between parties (a system known as panachage), or draw up their own list on a blank ballot. The six single-member cantons use first-past-the-post voting.
Seats in the National Council are apportioned to the cantons based on their respective population size (which includes children and resident foreigners who do not have the right to vote). Based on the official population count recorded at the end of 2020, Basel-Stadt lost a seat while Zürich gained one. Zürich is the canton with the most seats (36).
The rules regarding who can stand as a candidate and vote in elections to the National Council are uniform across the Confederation. Only Swiss citizens aged at least 18 can stand or vote and the citizens resident abroad can register to vote in the canton in which they last resided (or their canton of citizenship, otherwise) and be able to vote no matter how long since, or whether they ever have, lived in Switzerland.
Council of States.
The 46 members of the Council of States are elected in 20 two-seat constituencies (representing the 20 'full' cantons) and six single-member constituencies (representing the six half-cantons). Two 'full' cantons with small populations – Uri and Glarus – each have two seats in the Council of States but only one seat each in the much larger National Council.
Elections to the Council of States are regulated by the cantons. The cantons of Jura and Neuchâtel use proportional representation, while all the others use a majoritarian system, often with two rounds of voting. In the first round voters typically have up to two votes and candidates need an overall majority to be elected; if seats remain to be filled a runoff is held using simple plurality. All cantons, except Appenzell-Innerrhoden, which elects its state councilor during the Landsgemeinde in April, hold the first round concurrently with the National Council election, but the dates for the runoffs vary.
As each canton regulates its election to the Council of States, the rules regarding who can stand as a candidate and vote in these elections vary canton by canton. Jura and Neuchâtel allow certain foreign residents to vote, whilst Glarus allows 16- and 17-year-olds to vote. Swiss citizens abroad registered to vote in a canton are permitted to vote in that canton's Council of States election only if the canton's law allows it. Only Schaffhausen has compulsory voting, though limited in implementation by way of only an insignificant fine.
Contesting parties.
The table below lists contesting parties represented in the Federal Assembly before the election.
Candidates.
For this election, the Federal office of statistics reports a record in the number of candidacies. 5909 people (2408 women (41%) and 3501 men (59%)) in total, which is an increase of 1264 or 27% compared to last election, are candidates for the National Council on a total of 618 lists (an increase of 107).
Nearly a third (30%) of the candidates for the national council are younger than 30 years old. The average age is under 40 for the Greens and PS/SP, and it exceeds 50 for the smaller right-wing parties Ticino League and Geneva Citizens Movement.
Incumbents not standing for re-election.
National Council.
As of 8 April 2023, 25 National Council incumbents (an eighth of the council) announced they would not stand in this election.
Council of States.
As of 8 April 2023, 9 Council of States incumbents (nearly a fifth of the council) announced they would not stand in this election.
Results.
The SVP, which had campaigned heavily on opposing migration, performed strongly. The SVP made gains in Romandy, gaining for the first time more national councillors than the FDP in the region. The Centre notably gained seats, surpassing the FDP — putting the latter's second Federal Council seat in doubt — while the Green Party and Green Liberal Party performed poorly. The results indicated a stark divide between urban and rural areas. Although right-wing parties gained seats in the National Council, they did not secure a majority in the chamber. Despite the SVP's gains in the National Council, it did not perform as strongly in the Council of States, whereas The Centre gained seats. Neither the Left nor Right had a clear majority in the chamber.
Council of States.
31 of the 46 seats of the Council of States were filled in the first round, with the remaining 15 seats filled in the second round on the 12 and 19 November.
Aftermath.
Following the election, SVP President Marco Chiesa stated his party had "a clear mandate" and would seek "less political correctness" and to work with the other parties. Although smaller right-wing parties gained enough seats to form their own parliamentary group, they opted to remain in the SVP group.
On 25 October, the Federal Statistical Office announced it had miscalculated the national vote count; this resulted from "a programming error in the data import software for the cantons of Appenzell Inner Rhodes, Appenzell Outer Rhodes and Glarus." The corrected vote count did not affect the allocation of seats, but found the FDP remained the third largest party by vote share as opposed to The Centre.
The federal elections were followed on 13 December by the 2023 Swiss Federal Council election.
References.
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