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2015 Zürich cantonal elections

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2015 Zürich cantonal elections

← 2011 18 April 2015 2019 →

All 7 seats in the Executive Council of Zürich
All 180 seats in the Cantonal Council of Zürich (91 seats needed for a majority)
Executive Council
  First party Second party
 
Carmen Walker Späh.jpg
Party FDP.The Liberals Social Democrats
Elected Thomas Heiniger
150,557, 82.83%
Mario Fehr
146,307, 80.49%
Carmen W. Späh
116,058, 63.85%
Jacqueline Fehr
115,618, 63.61%

  Third party Fourth party
 
Ernst Stocker.jpg
Party Swiss People's Christian Democrats
Elected Ernst Stocker
145,205, 79.88%
Sylvia Steiner
118,477, 65.18%
Markus Kägi
136,563, 75.13%
Cantonal Council
Party Vote % Seats +/–
Swiss People's

30.02% 54 0
Social Democrats

19.67% 36 +1
FDP.The Liberals

17.33% 31 +8
Green Liberals

7.64% 14 −5
Greens

7.22% 13 −6
Christian Democrats

4.88% 9 0
Evangelical People's

4.27% 8 +1
BDP

2.62% 5 −1
Federal Democrats

2.66% 5 0
Alternative List

2.98% 5 +2
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

The 2015 Zürich cantonal elections were held on 12 April 2015, to elect the seven members of the cantonal Executive Council and the 180 members of the Cantonal Council.

This election resulted in a large gain for the bourgeois parties (SVP, FDP, CVP), as the FDP gained eight seats in the Cantonal Council and the CVP gained one executive councilor, resulting in the alliance holding an overall majority in the national council and five of the seven executive councilors.

Electoral system

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Executive Council

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The Executive Council contains seven members elected using a two-round majoritarian system. In the first round, electors have up to seven votes and the seven most-voted candidates reaching an overall majority (>50%) are elected. If seats remain to be filled, a runoff is held where electors have as many votes as seats remaining, and the candidates with the most votes (simple plurality) are elected.

Cantonal Council

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The Cantonal Council is elected using open-list proportional representation, with canton-wide apportionment of seats and allocation into 18 constituencies (biproportional apportionment). In each constituency, voters have as many votes as there are seats to fill (panachage is permitted); these votes each count both for the candidate and for the list they stand in. These votes counts are divided by the seats count to give fictional electors counts which can be summed up fairly throughout the canton.

Using the fictional electors counts, each party above the threshold (reaching 5% in at least one constituency) is apportioned seats canton-wide, which are then shared among their constituency lists. In each constituency list, the seats are attributed to the candidates reaching the most votes.

Number of seats by constituency
Constituency Seats Change
I Zürich city districts 1 & 2 4 −1
II Zürich city districts 3 & 9 12 =
III Zürich city districts 4 & 5 5 =
IV Zürich city districts 6 & 10 9 =
V Zürich city districts 7 & 8 6 =
VI Zürich city districts 11 & 12 12 =
VII Dietikon 11 =
VIII Affoltern 6 =
IX Horgen 15 =
X Meilen 13 =
XI Hinwil 12 =
XII Uster 16 =
XIII Pfäffikon 7 =
XIV Winterthur city 13 =
XV Winterthur land 7 =
XVI Andelfingen 4 =
XVII Bülach 17 =
XVIII Dielsdorf 11 +1

Candidates

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Executive Council

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Five of the seven incumbents councilors ran for re-election: Mario Fehr (SP), Thomas Heiniger (FDP), Ernst Stocker (SVP), Markus Kägi (SVP), and Martin Graf (Grüne). The first four were seen as safe seats.

Incumbent councilors Ursula Gut (FDP) and Regine Aeppli (SP) stood down, with cantonal councilor Carmen Walker Späh (FDP) and national councilor Jacqueline Fehr (SP) running to replace them. Former councilor Hans Hollenstein (CVP) defeated narrowly in 2011 did not run, with the CVP running cantonal councilor Sylvia Steiner in his place.

The bourgeois parties (SVP, FDP, and CVP) ran as the "top-5" ticket, with the goals of unseating Martin Graf and gaining a fifth councilor for the alliance. The pre-election polls showed a tight race between Steiner and Graf for the last seat.

Three candidates from minor parties ran: Markus Bischoff for the Alternative List, Nik Gugger for the EVP, and Marcel Lenggenhager for the BDP.[1]

Cantonal Council

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The table below lists contesting parties represented in the Cantonal Council before the election.

Name Ideology 2011 result
Votes (%) Seats
SVP Swiss People's Party
Schweizerische Volkspartei
National conservatism
Right-wing populism
29.6%
54 / 180
SP Social Democratic Party
Sozialdemokratische Partei
Social democracy
Democratic socialism
19.3%
35 / 180
FDP FDP.The Liberals
FDP.Die Liberalen
Classical liberalism
Conservative liberalism
12.9%
23 / 180
GPS Green Party
Grüne Partei
Green politics
Progressivism
10.6%
19 / 180
GLP Green Liberal Party
Grünliberale Partei
Green liberalism
Social liberalism
10.3%
19 / 180
CVP Christian Democratic People's Party
Christlichdemokratische Volkspartei
Christian democracy
Social conservatism
4.9%
9 / 180
EVP Evangelical People's Party
Evangelische Volkspartei
Christian democracy
Social conservatism
3.8%
7 / 180
BDP Conservative Democratic Party
Bürgerlich-Demokratische Partei
Christian democracy
Social conservatism
3.5%
6 / 180
EDU Federal Democratic Union
Eidgenössisch-Demokratische Union
National conservatism 2.6%
5 / 180
AL Alternative List
Alternative Liste
Socialism 1.6%
3 / 180

The Pirate Party ran again, along with Integrale Politik ZH and the Young Socialists, while the Swiss Democrats did not run, meaning a total of 13 parties contested this election, as many as in 2011.[2]

Results

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Executive Council

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Note: percentages here are calculated based on the number of valid votes (excluding blank and invalid votes) so that the absolute majority is at exactly 50%, but may result in candidates reaching over 100% of the valid votes.

Results of the 2015 Zürich Executive Council election
Candidate Party Votes %
Thomas Heiniger FDP 150,557 82.83
Mario Fehr SP 146,307 80.49
Ernst Stocker SVP 145,205 79.88
Markus Kägi SVP 136,563 75.13
Sylvia Steiner CVP 118,477 65.18
Carmen Walker Späh FDP 116,058 63.85
Jacqueline Fehr SP 115,618 63.61
Martin Graf Grüne 109,625 60.31
Markus Bischoff AL 67,103 36.92
Nik Gugger EVP 42,623 23.45
Marcel Lenggenhager BDP 42,443 23.35
Dani Schafroth Ind. 9,625 5.30
Scattered votes 72,224 39.73
Total 1,272,428 66.52
Blank and invalid votes 736,318 39.50
Total votes 1,864,016
Valid ballots 266,288 96.79
Invalid ballots 8,829 3.21
Total ballots 275,117
Registered voters/Turnout 879,262 31.29
Source: [3]

This election was an upset in the opposite direction than 2011. CVP candidate Sylvia Steiner regained the CVP's seat while overtaking both Carmen Walker Späh and Jacqueline Fehr, who were expected to perform better. Green candidate Martin Graf lost his seat by a margin of six thousand votes behind Jacqueline Fehr.[1]

Thomas Heiniger topped the polls with over 82%, overtaking Mario Fehr for first place. The four regular incumbents (Heiniger, M. Fehr, Stocker, and Kägi) were re-elected comfortably while the race was closer between the other candidates. Both SVP candidates saw their vote share slightly increase.

The "top-5" ticket of bourgeois parties won in an upset, with five of the top six candidates, and flipping a fifth seat in the council.[1]

Results by district

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Vote share of each candidate by district
District Bisc.
AL
J. Fehr
SP
M. Fehr
SP
Graf
GPS
Gugg.
EVP
Hein.
FDP
Kägi
SVP
Leng.
BDP
Schaf.
Ind.
Stei.
CVP
Stoc.
SVP
Späh
FDP
Scattered
Affoltern 30.4 61.1 77.7 59.8 21.0 85.1 81.0 20.1 5.6 68.4 85.0 67.1 37.8
Andelfingen 22.4 53.5 68.6 54.4 28.3 83.8 94.2 25.8 4.9 64.0 97.9 62.4 39.6
Bülach 25.0 54.1 73.6 51.2 26.1 85.2 85.1 26.0 5.0 67.4 89.4 65.7 46.3
Dielsdorf 21.2 50.7 69.0 48.7 22.0 88.2 96.3 19.9 3.9 70.4 97.6 67.5 44.6
Dietikon 24.8 53.2 71.9 46.3 16.5 90.1 88.2 20.8 4.0 74.2 91.3 71.7 46.9
Hinwil 28.0 51.0 67.9 50.6 27.2 85.8 85.9 25.7 4.4 70.1 91.7 66.3 45.5
Horgen 26.5 55.3 78.8 51.5 21.1 91.8 80.9 22.2 3.8 71.9 93.5 68.8 34.0
Meilen 25.5 48.8 70.4 48.5 19.1 96.8 85.0 23.3 4.4 73.3 90.2 78.0 36.8
Pfäffikon 23.6 56.2 73.0 62.9 28.8 84.7 82.5 24.1 3.2 68.4 86.1 64.5 42.0
Uster 31.5 58.4 77.7 54.6 20.4 83.8 76.1 29.8 3.6 66.2 81.1 63.5 53.4
Winterthur 37.9 71.6 82.8 64.4 37.2 72.9 69.7 26.2 4.6 58.2 74.2 54.4 45.7
Zürich 62.3 83.0 96.9 77.9 18.4 74.8 55.2 19.9 8.3 57.6 58.4 58.3 29.2
Total 36.9 63.6 80.5 60.3 23.4 82.8 75.1 23.3 5.3 65.2 79.9 63.8 39.7

Cantonal Council

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Results of the 2015 Zürich Cantonal Council election
5
13
36
8
14
31
5
9
54
5
PartyVotes%+/–Seats+/–
Swiss People's Party86,03630.02+0.3954±0
Social Democratic Party56,37519.67+0.3536+1
FDP.The Liberals49,65517.33+4.4031+8
Green Liberal Party21,8877.64−2.6314−5
Green Party20,6877.22−3.3513−6
Christian Democratic People's Party13,9814.88+0.029±0
Evangelical People's Party12,2424.27+0.498+1
Alternative List8,5332.98+1.355+2
Federal Democratic Union7,6292.66+0.295±0
Conservative Democratic Party7,4972.62−0.855−1
Pirate Party1,8600.65+0.090
Young Socialists Switzerland1260.04New0New
Integrale Politik600.02New0New
Total286,568100.00180
Source: wahlen.zh.ch[4]

The SVP retained its plurality of votes and seats in the council, and the social democrats maintained second place by gaining one seat. The liberals made the largest gains by far, gaining eight seats, in what the Tages-Anzeiger described as a "triumphant comeback" after "decades of decline". Both ecologist parties lost over a quarter of their seats, while the Alternative List gained two seats. The Liberals' gains allowed the "top-5" alliance of bourgeois parties (SVP, FDP, and CVP) to re-gain a majority, while giving them a larger influence within the alliance.[2]

Results by constituency

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Number of seats for each party by constituency
Constituency SVP SP FDP GLP GPS CVP EVP AL EDU BDP Total
seats
SVP SP FDP GLP GPS CVP EVP AL EDU BDP PP
I Zürich City 1 & 2 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 4 17.6 26.6 22.3 8.7 11.9 4.7 1.7 5.6 0.8
II Zürich City 3 & 9 2 4 2 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 12 20.4 29.8 12.2 7.6 10.6 5.2 2.7 8.4 0.6 0.9 1.5
III Zürich City 4 & 5 0 2 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 5 9.3 31.3 9.2 9.9 15.4 2.2 1.0 17.8 0.6 0.8 2.7
IV Zürich City 6 & 10 2 3 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 9 16.7 30.0 16.2 8.8 10.4 3.9 2.2 9.1 0.6 1.3 0.9
V Zürich City 7 & 8 1 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 6 16.3 24.6 27.3 8.3 10.7 4.6 2.3 4.8 0.4 0.8
VI Zürich City 11 & 12 3 3 2 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 12 26.4 27.2 11.6 7.6 8.1 6.5 3.6 4.3 1.5 2.1 1.2
VII Dietikon 4 2 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 11 36.3 17.5 20.0 5.6 3.7 8.3 3.8 1.3 1.1 1.6 0.7
XIII Affoltern 2 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 6 32.3 18.1 18.1 8.2 7.0 3.8 8.7 1.0 2.2
IX Horgen 4 3 3 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 15 29.5 16.9 21.7 7.5 5.9 8.2 4.2 1.3 1.5 2.9 0.4
X Meilen 4 2 4 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 13 31.2 14.7 28.8 7.7 5.0 4.5 2.2 1.1 2.8 2.0
XI Hinwil 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 12 36.1 13.3 14.2 6.9 6.4 5.6 5.9 1.3 6.7 3.6
XII Uster 5 3 2 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 16 33.5 17.7 15.7 9.1 5.6 4.7 3.1 1.2 2.6 5.7 0.6
XIII Pfäffikon 3 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 7 36.2 16.2 14.6 7.1 5.9 2.9 8.3 0.8 4.6 3.0 0.4
XIV Winterthur City 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 13 21.9 24.2 12.6 8.3 9.2 5.4 7.6 3.8 2.3 2.8 1.7
XV Winterthur Land 3 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 7 40.1 12.8 14.0 8.7 5.1 3.1 6.9 0.8 3.1 4.5 0.8
XVI Andelfingen 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 39.3 14.5 17.1 5.2 8.8 1.8 3.0 0.9 3.6 5.8
XVII Bülach 6 2 3 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 17 37.5 16.8 16.6 6.3 5.0 4.0 4.6 0.9 4.2 3.5 0.5
XVIII Dielsdorf 5 1 2 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 11 45.0 14.4 13.7 6.5 5.6 3.4 2.6 0.5 5.9 1.7 0.8
Total 54 36 31 14 13 9 8 5 5 5 180 30.0 19.7 17.3 7.6 7.2 4.9 4.3 3.0 2.7 2.6 0.7

References

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  1. ^ a b c Bühlmann, Marc (2015-04-12). "Regierungsratswahlen Zürich 2015". Année politique Suisse. Retrieved 2023-01-03.
  2. ^ a b Bühlmann, Marc (2015-04-12). "Kantonsratswahlen Zürich 2015". Année politique Suisse. Retrieved 2023-01-03.
  3. ^ "Regierungsratswahlen 2015". www.wahlen.zh.ch. Retrieved 2023-01-03.
  4. ^ "Kantonsratswahlen 2015". wahlen.zh.ch (in German). 2015-04-13. Retrieved 2023-01-03.