Once every four years Swiss get a chance to elect their Federal Government. 18 October 2015 was voting day.
At federal elections voters decide who their canton will send to Bern. Switzerland’s federal assembly is bicameral, made up of the 200-seat National Council (lower house), and the 46-seat Council of States (upper house). Seats in the National Council are allocated to cantons based on population, while two Council of States seats are allocated to each canton regardless of its population – half cantons such as Basel City only get one seat on the Council of States.
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In this election the UDC (SVP) made significant ground. In 2011 the party won 54 seats on the National Council. This time it won 65. This beats the party’s former record of 62 seats in 2007. The PLR (PRD) also improved its tally, moving from 30 to 33 seats. The biggest losers were the Socialist Party, which slid from 46 to 43 seats, and the Liberal Greens who dropped from 12 to 7 seats.
12 parties are now represented in the National Council. The 7 main parties listed below hold 193 of the 200 seats:
- Swiss Peoples Party (UDC/SVP) – 65 seats
- Socialist Party (SPS/PSS) – 43 seats
- Liberal Party (FDP/PLR) – 33 seats
- Christian Democratic People’s Party (CVP/PDC/PPD) – 27 seats
- Green Party (GPS/PES) – 11 seats
- Conservative Democratic party (BDP/PBD) – 7 seats
- Green Liberal Party (GLP/PVL) – 7 seats
Vaud
In the Vaud, no candidate won a majority in the first round of the canton’s Council of States election. Géraldine Savary (PS) led with 41% of the votes, followed by Green party member Luc Recordon with 39%. In third place was PLR’s Olivier Français, with 31%. He is likely to team up with the UDC, PDC and PBD parties in the second round of voting on 8 November 2015, according to the national broadcaster RTS.
The PLR led with 26.8% of the canton’s votes gaining an extra seat on the National Council. The Socialists, with 22.2% of Vaud’s votes lost one National Council seat. The UDC won 22.6% of the votes and remained steady with 4 seats on the National Council.
Vaud’s 18 National Council seats were won as follows:
- Liberal Party (FDP/PLR) – 5 seats
- Socialist Party (SPS/PSS) – 5 seats
- Swiss Peoples Party (UDC/SVP) – 4 seats
- Green Party (GPS/PES) – 2 seats
- Christian Democratic People’s Party (CVP/PDC/PPD) – 1 seat
- Green Liberal Party (GLP/PVL) – 1 seats
Geneva
In Geneva, the PLR gained one extra seat on the National Council moving from 2 to 3 seats while the PS and UDC remained unchanged with 3 and 2 seats respectively. The Green party lost one seat. The Council of States vote left no one with a majority, which means second round voting on 8 November 2015 will decide the outcome.
Geneva’s 11 National Council seats were won as follows:
- Liberal Party (FDP/PLR) – 3 seats
- Socialist Party (SPS/PSS) – 3 seats
- Swiss Peoples Party (UDC/SVP) – 2 seats
- Green Party (GPS/PES) – 1 seats
- Christian Democratic People’s Party (CVP/PDC/PPD) – 1 seat
- Geneva Citizens Movement (MCG) – 1 seats
Zürich
In Zürich, the top three parties all made ground at the National Council level. The PLR took 15.3% of the votes, securing 5 seats, one more than in 2011. The Socialist Party won 21.4% of the votes to secure 9 seats, two more than in 2011, and the UDC took 30.7% of the votes, picking up one more National Council seat than last time bringing its tally to 12. In the first round of the Council of States vote, no one won a majority. Nine of the top ten vote scorers in Zurich were from the Swiss People’s Party.
Zürich’s 35 National Council seats were won as follows:
- Swiss Peoples Party (UDC/SVP) – 12 seats
- Socialist Party (SPS/PSS) – 9 seats
- Liberal Party (FDP/PLR) – 5 seats
- Green Liberal Party (GLP/PVL) – 3 seats
- Green Party (GPS/PES) – 2 seats
- Christian Democratic People’s Party (CVP/PDC/PPD) – 2 seat
- Conservative Democratic party (BDP/PBD) – 1 seats
- Evangelical People’s Party (EVP/PEV) – 1 seats
The interactive map below displays results by canton. To display shares of votes by party, select “Survol 2015” from the top left drop down menu.
This link shows results by canton. For Vaud click here. For Geneva click here. For Zürich click here.
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