Grand Council of Bern

Before the 2010 election, Bern's Grand Council had six large parties: three on the right, two on the left, and one in the centre. It also has a range of smaller parties, due to the absence of an election threshold in the canton.

The Grand Council (German: Grosser Rat, French: Grand conseil) is the parliament of the Swiss canton of Bern.

It consists of 160 members (as of 2006) elected by proportional representation for a four-year term of office. The French-speaking part of the canton, the Bernese Jura (districts of Courtelary, La Neuveville and Moutier) has 12 seats guaranteed, and 3 seats are guaranteed for the French-speaking minority of the bilingual district of Biel/Bienne.

Composition

The last election was held on 27 March 2010, and resulted in a victory for the Swiss People's Party (SVP). However, whilst they maintained their plurality position, the main gainers were the Conservative Democratic Party, who gained eight seats on their pre-election position, having split from the SVP since the 2006 election. The Social Democratic Party and FDP.The Liberals both lost considerable ground. Template:Grand Council of Bern election, 2010

References

• Swiss Grand Councils in the Ancien Régime in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.

External links

All links are in German and French, unless otherwise noted.

• Official website of the Grand Council of Bern
• German-language Wikipedia article on the Grand Council of Bern
• Websites for the 2002 and 2006 Grand Council elections