Federal Council election 1999

On December 15, 1999, the general election of the Federal Council took place in Switzerland . The two chambers of the newly elected parliament, the United Federal Assembly , elected the Swiss government, the Bundesrat , for a term of office from 2000 to 2003. The seats were ordered individually in the order of the age of office of the seat holder.

After the replacement elections a few months earlier, all previous members of the Federal Council ran again. A non-re-election of an incumbent Federal Council was extremely unusual. The SVP, which was the strongest party in the previous parliamentary elections , unsuccessfully asked for a second seat.

Strategies of the factions

SVP: As the new strongest parliamentary group, the SVP demanded a second seat in the Federal Council. With National Councilor Christoph Blocher, she put up a candidate who did not run against a member of the smallest Federal Council party, the CVP, but against SP members Ruth Dreifuss and Moritz Leuenberger .
Other parliamentary groups: Most of the other parliamentary groups generally recognized the SVP's right to a second Federal Council seat. However, they accused her of not wanting to establish any concordance with her candidacy against the SP, since the SP's claim to her two seats was not disputed. In addition, the SVP had to wait until there was a vacancy.

Results

All previous members of the Federal Council were confirmed in the first ballot.

	1st Choice	2nd choice	3rd choice	4th choice	5th choice	6th choice	7th choice
ballot papers distributed	245	244	244	243	245	245	242
ballot papers received	245	244	244	243	245	242	241
empty / invalid	14/2	11/0	8/1	6/2	20/1	11/0	7/5
valid total	229	233	235	235	224	231	229
absolute more	115	117	118	118	113	116	115
is chosen	Adolf Ogi : 191	Kaspar Villiger : 187	Ruth Dreifuss : 148	Moritz Leuenberger : 154	Pascal Couchepin : 124	Ruth Metzler : 144	Joseph Deiss : 173
Votes received	Franz Steinegger : 11	Franz Steinegger : 15	Christoph Blocher : 58	Christoph Blocher : 58	Franz Steinegger : 20	Chiara Simoneschi : 13	Peter Hess : 10
various	27	31	29	23	80	74	46

Election of the Federal Chancellor

Annemarie Huber-Hotz

A successor had to be elected for the resigning Chancellor François Couchepin . Annemarie Huber-Hotz , who was also supported by the SVP, ran for the FDP . The CVP and the Liberals proposed Vice Chancellor Achille Casanova , the SP and EPP / LdU parliamentary groups proposed Vice Chancellor Hanna Muralt Müller . Annemarie Huber-Hotz was elected with 152 votes in the fourth ballot.

Election of the Federal President

Adolf Ogi was elected Federal President for 2000 with 176 votes and Moritz Leuenberger was elected Vice President with 145 votes.

Web links

Footnotes