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2008 Swiss Federal Council election
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| Field | Value | |
|---|---|---|
| election_name | 2008 Swiss Federal Council election | |
| country | Switzerland | |
| type | presidential | |
| ongoing | no | |
| previous_election | 2007 Swiss Federal Council election | |
| previous_year | 2007 | |
| next_election | 2009 Swiss Federal Council election | |
| next_year | 2009 | |
| election_date | 10 December 2008 | |
| image1 | [[File:Ueli Maurer (Nationalrat, 2007).jpg | 150px]] |
| nominee1 | Ueli Maurer | |
| party1 | Swiss People's Party | |
| electoral_vote1 | 122 | |
| image2 | [[File:Hansjörg Walter (2007).jpg | 150px]] |
| nominee2 | Hansjörg Walter | |
| party2 | Swiss People's Party | |
| electoral_vote2 | 121 | |
| title | Federal Councillor | |
| before_election | Samuel Schmid | |
| before_party | Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland | |
| after_election | Ueli Maurer | |
| after_party | Swiss People's Party |
On 10 December 2008, the Swiss Federal Assembly elected Ueli Maurer as successor to Federal Councillor Samuel Schmid. Schmid resigned on 12 November 2008 after a number of controversies, officially citing health and personal reasons. Maurer took office on 1 January 2009.
Candidates
The Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), Switzerland's largest party by voter share but no longer represented in the Federal Council after the 2008 split-off of Schmid's Conservative Democratic Party (BDP), claimed Schmid's seat. The other governing parties including the BDP accepted the SVP's claim and declined to field candidates of their own.
On 27 November 2008, the SVP's parliamentary group decided to nominate former Federal Councillor Christoph Blocher and former party president Ueli Maurer as candidates for Schmid's seat. Under new SVP party rules, any SVP member elected to the position without being nominated for it by the group would automatically lose his or her party membership. The opposition Green Party, citing their opposition to the SVP's policies and their representation on the Council, fielded State Councillor Luc Recordon as a candidate of their own.
All governing parties declared Blocher to be unacceptable as Federal Councillor. The center-right Free Democrats (FDP/PRD) decided to support Maurer, while the center-left Social Democrats (SP/PS) announced that they would not elect him and were looking for an alternative SVP candidate. The centrist Christian Democrats (CVP/PDC) announced on 9 December 2008 that a narrow majority of their parliamentary group, 23 MPs, would vote for Maurer
Results
Prior to the first round, Hansjörg Walter, an SVP councillor from Thurgau who had previously been rumored to be the favorite of the center-left parties, announced that he would not accept an election. He nonetheless received 109 votes. Following the first round, SVP group leader Caspar Baader announced that Christoph Blocher's candidacy was withdrawn in favor of Ueli Maurer. Green Party candidate Luc Recordon, who did not receive more than ten votes in the first round, declared that he would "suspend" his candidacy.
Ueli Maurer was elected Federal Councillor on the third ballot, receiving exactly the 122 votes required.
Source:
| Candidates | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | [[File:Ueli Maurer, 2009.jpg | 60px | Ueli Maurer]] | [[File:Hansjörg Walter (2007).jpg | 60px | Hansjörg Walter]] | [[File:Christoph Blocher (Bundesrat, 2004).jpg | 60px | Christoph Blocher]] | [[File:Luc Recordon (2007).jpg | 60px | Luc Recordon]] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ueli Maurer | 67 | 119 | 122 | ||||||||||||
| Hansjörg Walter | 109 | 121 | 121 | ||||||||||||
| Christoph Blocher | 54 | unknown | – | ||||||||||||
| Luc Recordon | unknown | unknown | – | ||||||||||||
| Other persons | 11 | 2 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Ballots cast | 244 | 244 | 244 | ||||||||||||
| Invalid ballots | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Blank ballots | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Valid ballots | 241 | 242 | 243 | ||||||||||||
| Absolute majority | 121 | 122 | 122 |
Footnotes
References
References
- "Bundesrats-Wahl am 10. Dezember - Schweiz - Tagesschau - Schweizer Fe…".
- http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/schweiz/jetzt_werden_die_karten_neu_gemischt_1.1253915.html {{Dead link. (February 2022)
- (23 November 2008). "Poll shows support split for cabinet nominees". [[Swissinfo]].
- http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/schweiz/maurer_wird_von_cvp-fraktion_knapp_unterstuetzt__1.1387307.html{{Dead link. (November 2018)
- (10 December 2008). "Official Bulletin of the Swiss Federal Assembly".
- Candidates receiving less than ten votes are listed as "other" in the official results.
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