Council of States clarifies restrictions on list combinations
Published: Thursday, Mar 7th 2024, 10:40
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The Council of States is seeking clarification on how list combinations could be restricted in the next National Council elections. The question is whether inter-party list combinations can be prevented and the number of intra-party list combinations restricted.
On Thursday, it sent two motions by Thierry Burkart (FDP/AG) to the responsible committee for preliminary examination. In the first, the FDP party leader is calling for the law to be amended to prohibit cross-party list combinations or make them unnecessary. To this end, the distribution procedure for National Council seats is to be adapted.
The Hagenbach-Bischoff distribution method used today favors large parties, Burkart argued. In order to treat all parties equally regardless of their voter share, a procedure with standard rounding would be needed.
Burkart's second motion calls for restrictions on sub-lists. He envisages a limit of three linked lists per party and canton.
Between 2003 and 2023, the number of candidates and lists for the National Council elections more than doubled: the number of lists submitted rose from 262 to 618 and the number of candidates from 2836 to 5909, Burkart claims.
The Federal Council recommends that both motions be rejected and refers to investigations in Parliament on the subject of electoral systems and electoral rules. These investigations should not be prejudged. The Council of States has now referred the two motions to the relevant committee to await the results of this work.
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