1917 Swiss federal election

Federal elections were held in Switzerland on 28 October 1917. The Free Democratic Party retained its majority in the National Council.[1] They were the last elections held under the majoritarian system; following a referendum in 1918 in which two-thirds of voters voted for the introduction of proportional representation, the electoral system was changed and early elections held in 1919.

Switzerland
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Switzerland
Switzerland portal
The 49 electoral districts

Electoral system

The 189 members of the National Council were elected in 49 single- and multi-member constituencies using a three-round system. Candidates had to receive a majority in the first or second round to be elected; if it went to a third round, only a plurality was required. Voters could cast as many votes as there were seats in their constituency.[2] There was one seat for every 20,000 citizens, with seats allocated to cantons in proportion to their population.[2]

Results

Voter turnout was highest in Schaffhausen (where voting was compulsory) at 86.8% and lowest in Uri at 23.4%.

Party Votes % Seats +/–
Free Democratic Party210,32340.8103–9
Social Democratic Party158,45030.820+2
Conservative People's Party84,78416.442+5
Liberal Democratic Party25,1884.912–4
Democratic Group16,8183.37+3
Party of Farmers, Traders and Independents19,4593.84+3
Other parties1+1
Invalid/blank votes32,630–––
Total547,6521001890
Registered voters/turnout915,55259.8––
Source: Mackie & Rose,[3] BFS (seats)

References
  1. Elections to the National Council 1848–1917: Distribution of seats by party or political orientation Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine BFS
  2. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1886 ISBN 9783832956097
  3. Thomas T Mackie & Richard Rose (1991) The International Almanac of Electoral History, Macmillan
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.