Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. The Swiss VAA (Voting Advice Application) smartvote, allows us to analyse the political issue preferences of more than 80% of the 4600 candidates contesting the national parliament.
2. The dimensions are based on over 70 questions on political issues. For the construction of these dimensions see https://smartvote.ch/en/wiki/methodology-smartspider/19_ch_nr?locale=en_CH [Accessed 18 February 2020].
3. See SRG SSR Wahlbarometer. Hauptbericht – Oktober 2019. Zürich: sotomo, p. 9.
4. See https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/home/statistiken/politik/wahlen/nationalratswahlen/parteistaerken.assetdetail.11048441.html (Accessed 3 March 2020).
5. The national government is elected in the second week of December following a national parliamentary election. The electoral body is the National Assembly consisting of the 200 members of the National Council and the 46 members of the Council of States.