Three Candidates Vie for Seats in Neuchâtel’s State Council: Favorite and Two Outsiders
Published: Monday, Oct 2nd 2023, 12:31
Aktualisiert am: Freitag, 13. Oktober 2023, 14:12
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Three candidates are vying for the seat of outgoing SP State Councilor Laurent Kurth in the canton of Neuchâtel. The trio consists of the clear favorite Frédéric Mairy (SP) and the two outsiders Jean-Luc Pieren and Thomas Wroblevski. On Monday afternoon, the deadline for submitting nominations expired, as the Neuchâtel State Chancellery announced. The by-election will take place on November 26th. Several parties had criticized the date of this election due to its proximity to the Swiss federal elections on October 22. They called for the election to be postponed to the beginning of 2024, giving the parties enough time to select candidates after the results of the federal elections were announced. The State Council rejected this recommendation, however. It was convinced of the correctness of the chosen timeline, especially in order to avoid a vacancy in the government, the government justified its adherence to the deadline. Kurth had announced his resignation at the end of February 2024. The major parties besides the SP announced that they would not be putting forward a candidate for this by-election. Initially, a silent election seemed likely. However, it was not expected that the two outsiders, Jean-Luc Pieren and Thomas Wroblevski, would put themselves forward as candidates. Mairy, a council member from Val-de-Travers, was unanimously nominated by the party congress of the Swiss People's Party (SP) on September 9th. The president of the Neuchâtel cantonal association had already been discussed for the election to the Council of States in April 2021. It is quite possible that Mairy will be elected in the first round of voting. Former SVP councilor Jean-Luc Pieren has repeatedly attempted to be elected to office. In 2020, the 60-year-old sought a seat on the La Chaux-de-Fonds municipal council, his home of election. For the Swiss federal elections on October 22nd, he is running for the Council of States under the banner of the European Federalist Party. Thomas Wroblevskis goal is to push forward the idea of a reform of the cantonal law on political rights, so that blank ballots can be taken into account in elections and referendums. Such a change would give citizens the power to declare an election invalid if blank ballots are in the majority.
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