The Federal Council Must Correct Excessively High Voter Shares of SVP, Center and FDP.
Published: Wednesday, Oct 25th 2023, 14:30
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On Monday night, the Swiss Federal Office of Statistics (BFS) released incorrect figures for the party strengths of the Swiss People's Party (SVP), the Middle Party and the Free Democratic Party (FDP). After the correction, it became clear that the FDP had the third highest voter share at the national level. The correction had no effect on the distribution of the 200 National Council seats or the cantonal results, according to the BFS. However, the correction had an effect on the ranking of party strengths: the FDP remained the third strongest political force in the country, despite the fact that its result was corrected downwards by 0.13 percentage points to 14.3 percent. Because the strength of the Middle Party was even overestimated by 0.52 percentage points, the Middle Party now falls behind the Free Democrats. According to the corrected figures, it has a voter share of 14.1 percent, just behind the FDP. The BFS also had to correct the voter turnout upwards by 0.7 percentage points, but it remained rounded at 46.6 percent. The mistake was caused by a faulty programming in the data import program. The system used to transmit the data from the cantons to the federal government was used for the first time on election day. The BFS will now adjust the processes in this sensitive statistical area, including a more comprehensive automated plausibility check of the calculations. The FDP expressed its irritation about the calculation error, while the Middle Party was still pleased with its National Council seat.
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