Swiss parliamentary elections 2023

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Federal Palace in Bern

The Swiss parliamentary elections in 2023 are scheduled to take place on October 22, 2023. They follow the elections in autumn 2019 . The 200 mandates of the National Council and 45 of the 46 members of the Swiss Council of States are newly elected. The National Council and Council of States together form the Federal Assembly . The 52nd legislative period will last four years - until 2027.

Election mode

National Council

National Council Chamber

The distribution of the seats in the National Council among the cantons is based on the permanent resident population (including those not entitled to vote) in the year following the last general renewal elections.

Each person entitled to vote has as many votes as the respective canton has mandates. Voting takes place on lists , whereby variegation and accumulation (maximum two votes for one candidate) are possible. Major elections take place in cantons with only one seat on the National Council .

Parties, voter groups and associations as well as individuals can submit electoral lists to the cantons. In large cantons, parties often run with multiple lists. Such differentiated lists are usually linked together as sub-lists. In addition, two or more parties can enter into a list connection . In this case, in the (first) allocation of the number of seats, the list connection is regarded as a single list.

The number of seats is allocated using the Hagenbach-Bischoff method , a calculation variant of the D'Hondt method .

Council of States

Council of States Chamber

The Council of States - the small chamber of parliament - has 46 members. The federal constitution stipulates that each canton holds two seats in the small chamber of parliament. The cantons that were previously listed as "half cantons" are an exception: Basel-Stadt , Basel-Landschaft , Obwalden , Nidwalden , Appenzell Ausserrhoden and Appenzell Innerrhoden only send one member. This fixes the number of 46 MPs.

The election and term of office of the Council of States are the responsibility of the cantons. Thus, in contrast to the National Council, there is de jure no general election for renewal, and consequently no constituent meeting and no senior presidents. Each canton is therefore free to determine the time of the election and the election procedure for its members of the Council of States.

In the time since the Confederation was founded, the electoral procedures between the cantons have been harmonized to such an extent that, with the exception of the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden, all seats in the Council of States are re-elected on the same day as the National Council. The Senate elections are governed by cantonal law: As voting procedures, most cantons have the Majorzwahlrecht set, with the candidates that in the first round (canton to canton calculated) absolute majority must achieve true in a possible second round of voting then the simple majority . The cantons of Jura and Neuchâtel vote according to proportional representation . In the canton of Glarus , 16- and 17-year-olds have the right to vote at cantonal level, so they can have a say in the election of the Council of States.

For all cantons with a majority procedure, a new election must be scheduled if a member of the Council of States leaves. The new member of the Council of States determined in this way is then only elected for the period until the next regular election of the Council of States.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Blank voting dates. Retrieved October 20, 2019 .
  2. ↑ The seat of the Council of States of Appenzell Innerrhoden is assigned to the Landsgemeinde in April before the National Council elections.
  3. ↑ Federal Act on Political Rights ( SR 161.1 ), Art. 16 1 “Allocation of seats to the cantons”, in force since January 1, 2008.