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Swiss elections, 2003

Legislative elections in the Swiss Confederation were held on 19 October 2003. Although in Switzerland's peculiar political system, in which all four major parties form a permanent coalition, there can never be a change of government, this election produced an upset in the strong showing of the right-wing, anti-European Union and anti-immigration People's Party, led by Christoph Blocher. The left wing parties, the Socialists and the Greens, also improved their positions. The losers were the parties of the centre-right, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals.

Table of contents
1 The Legislature
2 Parties
3 Government parties
4 Other parties
5 Preliminary Results
6 External links and references

The Legislature

Switzerland has a bicameral legislature, the Federal Assembly (Assemblée Fédérale / Bundesversammlung / Asamblea Federale / Assemblea Federala).

These elections were to the National Council and for most of the members of the Council of States.

All parties in Switzerland have different names in French, German and Italian, and conduct separate campaigns in the different language areas.

Parties

Government parties

These four parties have formed a continuous coalition government since 1959 with each party allotted a fixed number of cabinet posts (the "magic formula").

Swiss People's Party (right wing-populist)

Social-Democratic Party or Socialist Party (centre-left) Christian Democratic Party (centre-right) Radical Democratic Party (centre-right, liberal)

Other parties

Green Lists (under different names in each Canton)

Liberal Party

Evangelical People's Party Federal Democratic Union

Preliminary Results

Votes and seats for each party are compared with those polled in 1999.

Party       Votes (%)                Seats
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              1999   2003   99-03      1999   2003   99-03 
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SVP/UDC        22.5  27.7   +5.2        44     55    +11 
SPS/PSS/PS     22.5  24.2   +1.7        51     52    +01
FDP/PRD/PLR    19.9  16.0   -3.9        43     36    -07 
CVP/PDC        15.9  12.9   -3.0        35     28    -07 
Greens         05.0  07.7   +2.7         9     13    +04 
LPS/PLS        02.3  02.5   +0.2         6      4    -02 
EVP/PE         01.8  02.5   +0.7         3      3      0 
EDU/UDF        01.2  01.5   +0.3         1      2     +1 
Others         08.9  05.0                8      7     -1
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Total                                  200    200
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Because voting is conducted on a cantonal basis, detailed national voting statistics cannot yet be displayed here. They can be viewed at the website of Statistics Switzerland

See also: Politics of Switzerland

External links and references