Parliamentary elections in Switzerland took place on October 27, 1872. Compared to the previous elections of 1869, the National Council was expanded from 128 to 135 seats, and the number of constituencies increased from 47 to 48. The cantons of Friborg , Neuchâtel (canton) , Solothurn , St. Gallen and Zurich got one more place, and the canton Bern increased representation by 2 seats.
The radical left party remained the largest parliamentary party, receiving 60 of the 135 seats of the National Council [1] .
Election System
135 deputies of the National Council were elected in 48 single and multi-member districts. The distribution of mandates was proportional to the population: one parliament seat for 20 thousand citizens [2] .
Voting was conducted according to the system in three rounds. In the first and second rounds, the candidate had to get an absolute majority of votes to be elected; in the third round, a simple majority was enough. Each subsequent round was held after the exclusion of the candidate with the least number of votes [2] . In six cantons ( Appenzell-Innerroden , Appenzell-Auserroden , Glarus , Nidwalden , Obvalden and Uri ), where members of the National Council were previously elected by the cantonal councils, direct voting was introduced. Thus, this election was the first in which the National Council was fully elected by direct vote.
The new federal election law changed the method of counting votes: the majority began to be calculated only from the number of valid votes, whereas earlier, invalid ballots were also included in the total number of votes [3] .
Results
In the canton of Uri , the highest turnout was recorded at 91.3%, which exceeded the turnout in the canton with the mandatory vote of Schaffhausen , where it was 75.2%. In the canton of Schwyz, the turnout was the smallest (39.8%).
| The consignment | Votes | % | Places | +/– | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Radical left | 35,2 | 60 | +4 | ||
| Catholic right | 25.6 | thirty | +7 | ||
| Liberal centrists | 21.1 | 27 | -four | ||
| Democratic group | 12.5 | fifteen | 0 | ||
| Right evangelists | 4.1 | 3 | 0 | ||
| Independent | 1,5 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Total | 392 843 | one hundred | 135 | +7 | |
| Registered Voters / Turnout | 632 901 | 62.1 | - | - | |
| Source: BFS | |||||
Notes
- ↑ Elections to the National Council 1848–1917: Distribution of seats by party or political orientation Archived September 23, 2015. Bfs
- ↑ 1 2 Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook , p1886 ISBN 9783832956097
- ↑ Nohlen & Stöver, pp1886–1887