Switzerland - 2019 Election
Parliamentary elections were on 20 October 2019. The 200 seats of the National Council are allocated to the cantons according to their relative population as recorded in the latest census. Each of the 26 cantons forms a single constituency and elects at least one member. The number of seats per canton varies from one in 6 cantons to 35 in the canton of Zurich. Elections are conducted under a proportional system, except in the cantons that return only one member where a majoritarian system is used.
In the multi-member constituencies, voters choose among candidate lists mainly put forward by political parties. Parties may present a joint list with another party. Parties also often present “special-lists” of candidates representing women, youth, or geographical areas within a canton. Voters may use a pre-printed ballot paper with the list of a particular party and vote for all the candidates on the list. However, voters can also modify a pre-printed ballot paper by deleting candidates, adding candidates from other lists within the same constituency (vote splitting or “panachage”), or entering the name of one candidate twice (accumulation). Voters may also compose their own ballot paper by combining candidates from different lists within the constituency.
All cantons provide Swiss citizens residing abroad with the possibility to vote in, and be elected to, the National Council. To do so, they must register in either their commune of origin or the commune where they last resided. In contrast, only 12 cantons provide the right for non-resident citizens to vote in elections to the Council of States.11 Some 142,000 of the estimated 746,000 citizens living abroad are registered to vote in the upcoming elections.
It is estimated that 1.9 million non-citizens are resident in Switzerland (some 23 percent of the population). Non-citizens do not have voting rights in National Council elections. However, the cantons of Jura and Neuchâtel do allow non-citizens to vote in Council of States elections. While citizenship is an admissible restriction on suffrage for national elections, there is an emerging trend to grant voting rights for local elections to long-term residents who are not citizens.13 In Switzerland, the authority to grant these rights rests with the cantons.
Switzerland has a diverse political landscape. The 13 parties currently represented in the Federal Assembly, together with interest groups and civil society, are instrumental in setting the political agenda. In addition to federal elections, parties campaign throughout each year, either for local elections, referenda, or popular initiatives. The campaign for the upcoming elections is expected to focus on immigration, the economy, and relations with the European Union.
Federal legislation does not regulate the campaign in detail. While advertisements in the press and campaign posters are permitted, political advertisements on broadcast media are prohibited. Parties informed the OSCE/ODIHR NAM that they intend to campaign through posters, canvassing and small meetings, as well as via the Internet and social media.
The media landscape is pluralistic and structured primarily along linguistic lines. There is a variety of public and private television channels and radio stations, a vibrant and diverse press, and an increasing number of Internet-based news sites.
Green parties made historic gains 20 October 2019 at the expense of those to the right and the left in elections to the Swiss parliament. The Greens have taken 28 House seats, more than doubling their representation and placing them ahead of the Christian Democrats and only one seat behind the Radicals. Final results show the left-wing Green Party winning 13% of the vote for the House of Representatives – up nearly 6% on 2015 and their best result ever. The centrist Liberal Greens also increased their share of the vote to 7.9% from 4.6%. The right-wing People's Party remained the largest group in the House ahead of the left-wing Social Democrats.
Overall, the left and the center gained ground, prompting speculation about a reshuffle of the multi-party government. Traditionally the three-largest parties (Swiss People’s Party, Social Democratic Party and Radical-Liberal Party) get two cabinet seats and the fourth-largest (until now the Christian Democratic Party) gets one. The Green Party (with 13.2% of the vote) is now the fourth-largest party, having overtaken the Christian Democrats (on 11.4%).
The seven-member executive is currently made up of members of the main four parties, but not the Greens. Environmental concerns dominated campaigns in the run-up to the vote. Numerous street protests demanding action on climate change took place across the Switzerland over the past ten months. The Swiss People’s Party has developed a sceptical profile on climate change, but it appears opportunistic because it follows the familiar formula of simply opposing everything.
The leading right-wing Swiss People’s Party and the left-wing Social Democrats lost voter support – down 3.6% and 2.2% respectively – compared with 2015. The number of female parliamentarians has risen to 85 in the House, according to official results. That's 10% more than in the outgoing parliament. However, none of the more than 70 expatriate Swiss candidates was elected. Turnout was 45.1%, according to the Federal Statistics Office, down from 48.5% in the previous elections in 2015.
The left-wing and Liberal Greens benefited from the fact that the climate movement mobilised people more than the fear of too many foreigners or Switzerland’s unresolved relationship with the European Union. One obstacle to the election of a Green member of the Swiss government is that the two Green parties - the left-wing Greens and the more centrist Liberal Greens - have different policy programmes. As long as they have no common programme, it is not possible to just add together their proportion of the vote and number of seats. Moreover, they will only gain strength in the House of Representatives, and hardly at all in the Senate. And as long as no current member of the government steps down, it will be difficult to elect a Green member. The election of such a member of government could, however, be justified by the current shift in policy: Switzerland needs new climate policies.
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