The 2011 Swiss Federal Elections: Right-wing Defeat and Increased Fractionalisation

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Notes

 1. For other recent reports in this elections in context series, see Allern (2010), Arter (2011), Dinas (2010), Fass (2010), Fernandes (2011), Haughton et al. (2011), Kosiara-Pedersen (2012), Lisi (2010), Little (2011) Quinn (2011), and van Holsteyn (2011).

 2. See http://www.bfs.admin.ch for election results at the cantonal level.

 3. See ‘Wahlbarometer’ at http://www.gfsbern.ch on behalf of the SRG SSR (the public broadcasting company).

 4. Switzerland does not have any disclosure rules on campaign financing, so it is not known officially what parties and candidates spend in their campaign and where the money comes from.

 5. See http://tsr.blogs.com/argent-et-politique/2011/11/index.html(accessed 6 January 2012).

 6. Greco report under http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/greco/evaluations/round3/GrecoEval3(2011)4_Switzerland_Two_EN.pdf

 7. http://www.transparency.ch/de/PDF_files/Divers/Positionspapier_Politikfinanzierung.pdf

 8. http://www.osce.org/odihr/87417

 9. The electoral districts for both chambers are the cantons which vary greatly in population size and as a consequence in district magnitude for the national council elections. The largest canton has 34 seats, six cantons have only one seat and in those cantons a plurality election takes place where the candidate with the most votes in a single round gets elected.

10. The Swiss law does not allow political campaign adds in TV and radio, so parties have to focus on newspapers, posters, leaflets and the internet.

11. The elections to the 46 members of the Council of States – two per canton and one per half-canton – are held according to cantonal legislation. Almost all cantons elect the two members with a majoritarian elections which require an absolute majority in the first round and a simple majority in the second round (see Lutz and Strohmann 2008).