Cantonal Council (Obwalden)

The Obwalden Cantonal Council is the parliament of the Canton of Obwalden . It meets in the town hall of Sarnen and is the legislative and supreme supervisory authority of the canton. Its 55 members are elected for four years on a proportional basis. Each of the seven municipalities is entitled to at least four seats. The Cantonal Council enacts all fundamental and important provisions in the form of laws. It usually holds ten to twelve full-day or half-day meetings per year. The current term of office runs from the end of June 2018 to the end of June 2022, the elections for this took place on March 4, 2018.

tasks

The Cantonal Council elects the President, his deputy and the three tellers from among its members. These offices are the head of the council (also known as the “canton council office”), are always limited to one year and are reassigned at the beginning of the new year of office in July. The choice of the third teller is of particular importance, as this is traditionally elected in the following years as the second teller, first teller, Vice President and then President of the Cantonal Council. The election of the third teller is therefore usually the only one to be secretly voted. The official of the Cantonal Council is the country woman . Since March 2013, Hanna Mäder has been a country woman for the first time. Before that, Hubert Imfeld had been Landweibel since 1986.

Similarly, the cantonal council selects each year from the middle of the Governing Council of the bailiff and the country governor , that the Chairman of the Governing Council and his deputy. After a year in office, the previous Ammann is suspended for re-election in the coming year. A member of the government council may serve a maximum of four terms of office as governor.

In addition, the Cantonal Council elects the Vice-Presidents of the Higher Court, the Administrative Court and the Cantonal Court for a period of four years; furthermore the public prosecutors and from among them the chief public prosecutor and his deputy as well as the youth attorney and his deputy. The election of the members of the business and auditing committee as well as other advisory commissions for various areas is also the responsibility of the cantonal council.

The cantonal council decides on laws and changes or repeals them, prepares constitutional amendments (mandatory referendum) and decides on the conclusion of inter-cantonal agreements. He oversees the government, administration and judicial authorities. He is also responsible for making decisions about major investments, i.e. one-off expenses of up to CHF 1 million or annual recurring expenses of up to CHF 200,000.

Further powers of the Cantonal Council are listed in Article 70 of the Cantonal Constitution. The Cantonal Council is therefore subject to the interpretation of texts in ordinances, laws and the constitution, but due to the separation of powers, it is never in a case that is dealt with by a judge.

Parties

Distribution of seats 2018–2022

8th

16

8th

15th

8th 8th 16 8th 15th

A total of 55 seats

SP : 8
CSP OW : 8
CVP : 16
FDP : 8
SVP : 15

In the elections, the participating parties achieved the following number of seats and votes. The Christian Social Party Obwalden is subsequently counted to the CVP until 1978. From 1982 the CSP OW led independent election campaigns and formed its own parliamentary group. In 2002 she left CVP Switzerland and was affiliated with the Christian Social Party in Switzerland from 2005 to 2010 .

Voting shares	2018	2014	2010	2006	2002	1998
CVP	28.67%	32.10%	34.18%	35.02%	33.52%	42.14%
SVP	24.53%	24.49%	21.71%	14.97%	14.20%	---
FDP / LP	17.16%	16.95%	17.68%	19.81%	19.92%	24.08%
CSP OW	12.99%	13.60%	14.34%	15.31%	15.50%	20.31%
SP	15.12%	11.99%	11.44%	13.93%	16.87%	13.47%
The alternative	---	---	---	0.97%	---	---
Vg JzD	---	---	0.66%	---	---	---
Juso	---	0.87%	---	---	---	---
Generation Engelberg	1.12%	---	---	---	---	---
IG clean justice	0.41%	---	---	---	---	---

In 2018, the Generation Engelberg list of the CVP won a seat for the CVP with 1.12% of the vote.

For the legislative period from 2018 to 2022, 41 male and 14 female (= 25.45%) members of the Cantonal Council were elected. In the previous legislature from 2014 to 2018, the ratio was initially 39 men and 16 women.

Voting in 2018 was 53.79% across the canton and fluctuated between 51.00% in Giswil and 65.91% in Lungern.

Members

eligibility

As part of the separation of powers, the constitution of the canton of Obwalden stipulates, among other things, that members of the government council may not also be members of the cantonal council. (Art. 45). Employees of the canton are also not allowed to be elected to any higher-level cantonal authority and are therefore excluded as candidates for the canton council (Art. 50). In addition, Article 51 prohibits the cantonal council from simultaneously including persons who are related or related by marriage up to and including third degree, are married to each other or live in a registered partnership. Unless otherwise stipulated by law, the term of office of elected representatives is four years. (Art. 48) In addition, Article 49 stipulates that the term of office is limited to a maximum of 16 years.

Number and distribution among the constituencies

The number of members is 55 (Art. 66). These are elected every four years in 7 constituencies according to a proportional representation procedure, with each municipality representing a closed constituency. The number of MPs per constituency is determined by the number of inhabitants as of December 31, two years before the next election, but each municipality is entitled to at least 4 representatives in the cantonal council.

The municipalities have had the following claims to representation since 2014:

local community	Number of representatives
Sarnen	15th
Kerns	9
Alpnach	9 (until 2014: 8)
Sachseln	7th
Giswil	5 (until 2014: 6)
Engelberg	6th
Lounging	4th

Due to the population development, there was a shift in seats in the 2014 elections. Alpnach received a seat at the expense of Giswil. This is the first such change since the number of seats was set at 55.

compensation

The “Law on the Remuneration and Compensation of Authorities and Commissions” or “Authorities Act” for short regulates the remuneration of parliamentarians.

For attending the cantonal council meetings as well as studying files and expenses, the members of parliament receive daily allowances, the amount of which depends on their place of residence. Members from Engelberg receive Fr. 230.- for half a day and Fr. 320.- for the whole day, for members from Lungern the same applies to Fr. 210.- and Fr. 300.-; all other members are compensated with CHF 200 or CHF 290. 15% of the total counts as a flat fee.

In addition, the President of the Cantonal Council receives an annual lump sum of CHF 4000, the Vice President CHF 800. In addition, there are further regulations on compensation for committee members in Article 11 of the aforementioned law.

Members of the Cantonal Council for the 2018–2022 term of office

The Cantonal Council for this term of office first met on June 29, 2018 and at this meeting elected Peter Wälti (CVP, Giswil) as President and Reto Wallimann (FDP, Alpnach) as Vice-President. Reto Wallimann is President and Cornelia Kaufmann-Hurschler (CVP, Engelberg) is Vice-President in the 2019/20 office year.

The Cantonal Council has 55 members, including 14 women and 41 men (as of June 30, 2019).

The parliamentary group presidencies hold (as of June 30, 2019):

CVP: Marcel Jöri-Wallimann
SVP: Ivo Herzog
CSP: Helen Keizer-Fürrer
FDP: Christian Limacher
SP: Max Rötheli

Mutations:

Before the beginning of the term of office, Hanspeter Scheuber (CSP, Kerns) and Karl Feierabend (SVP, Engelberg) took over for the two elected council members Christian Schäli and Daniel Wyler , as both were elected to the Obwalden government council in the second ballot on April 8, 2018 .
In the middle of 2019, eight members of the council resigned: Hans-Melk Reinhard (FDP, Sachseln), Ruth Koch (SP, Kerns), Barbara Dahinden (CSP, Giswil), Walter Wyrsch (CSP, Alpnach), Leo Spichtig (CSP, Alpnach) ), Urs Keizer (CVP, Sarnen), Markus Ettlin (CVP, Kerns) and Hans Unternährer (SVP, Kerns). At the opening meeting for the 2019/20 year of office on June 28, 2019, these were replaced by the following politicians: Roland Kurz (FDP, Sachseln); Josef Allenbach (SP, Kerns); Andreas Sprenger (CSP, Alpnach); Ruth Albert von Wyl (CSP, Alpnach); Daniel Windisch (CSP, Giswil); Sonnie Burch-Chatti (CVP, Kerns); Dominik Imfeld (CVP, Sarnen) and Thomas Michel (SVP, Kerns).

Members of the Cantonal Council for the 2014–2018 term of office