Federal elections were held in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

on 23 October 2011. All of the Federal Assembly were to be elected: all 200 seats in the National Council and all 46 seats in the Council of States. Voter turnout was 49.1%, compared to 48.9% in 2007.

National Council

At the last election, in 2007, the

Swiss People's Party The Swiss People's Party (, SVP; , PPS), also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre (, UDC; , UDC), is a national-conservative and right-wing populist political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Marcel Dettling, it is the largest party in ...

(SVP) won the highest share of the vote ever recorded for a single party in Switzerland, with 29% of the vote. Soon after, a moderate faction split from the SVP, forming the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP). In the 2011 election, the two neophyte parties BDP and Green Liberal Party (GLP) were successful, each receiving 5.4% of the popular vote. Both the GLP and the BDP have gained the required five seats to form their own

parliamentary group A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political party, political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller politic ...

s, suggesting a split of the centrist CVP/EVP/glp group. All other major parties lost votes, the

(SVP) for the first time since the 1987 elections. With 26.6% of the popular vote, the SVP is still the strongest party by a comfortable margin, but the 2011 elections marked the end of its rapid growth during the period of 1995–2007. Of the small parties (below 5 seats), the Evangelical People's Party received 2.0% of the vote (+0.4%), retaining its two seats. The

Ticino League The Ticino League () is a regionalist, national-conservative political party in Switzerland active in the canton of Ticino. The party was founded in 1991 by entrepreneur Giuliano Bignasca and journalist Flavio Maspoli. After some public camp ...

received 0.8% of the vote (+0.2%) and gains one seat, now holding two. The Christian Social Party lost one seat, but gained another to remain in the National Council, while the

Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland The Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (German: ''Eidgenössisch-Demokratische Union'', EDU; French: ''Union Démocratique Fédérale'', UDF; Italian: ''Unione Democratica Federale'', UDF; Romansch: ''Uniun Democrata Federala'', UDF) is a na ...

and Swiss Party of Labour lost their single seats. Other minor groups which gathered more than 0.1% of the popular vote are: the Swiss Pirate Party (0.48%), the Swiss Democrats (0.20%), parteifrei.ch (0.19%) and Tierpartei Schweiz (0.15%).

By constituency

Council of States

The elections of the Council of States are done by a

plurality voting system Plurality voting refers to electoral systems in which the candidates in an electoral district who poll more than any other (that is, receive a plurality) are elected. Under single-winner plurality voting, and in systems based on single-member ...

. 27 out of 46 seats were determined on the first ballot on 23 October; the remaining 19 seats were decided in a second ballot held in November.

By canton

Pre-election polls

Notes and references

External links

{{Portal bar, Politics, Switzerland Federal elections in Switzerland 2011 elections in Switzerland October 2011 in Europe