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2003 Zürich cantonal elections

The 2003 Zürich cantonal elections were held on 6 April 2003, to elect the seven members of the cantonal Executive Council) and the 180 members of the Cantonal Council.

2003 Zürich cantonal election
Canton of Zurich
← 1999 6 April 2003 2007 →
All 180 seats in the Cantonal Council of Zürich (91 seats needed for a majority)
Party Vote % Seats +/–
Swiss People's

30.24% 61 +1
Social Democrats

26.17% 53 +10
Free Democrats

15.91% 29 −6
Greens

7.86% 14 +3
Christian Democrats

6.37% 12 −1
Evangelical People's

5.12% 9 0
Federal Democrats

2.11% 1 0
Swiss Democrats

1.35% 1 −1
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

Background

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In 1999, the bourgeois parties alliance of FDP, CVP, and SVP won five of the seven executive councillors, with the left parties (SP and Greens) won the remaining two. In this election, the SP hoped to gain a second seat; the SVP, bolstered by their national momentum, left the alliance with the FDP and CVP to run alone.[1]

Electoral system

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Executive Council

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The Executive Council contains 7 members elected using a two-round majoritarian system. In the first round, electors have up to seven votes and the 7 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 was elected using open-list proportional representation in 18 multi-member constituencies with no threshold. 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.

Seats are first apportioned to the apparentments (groups of lists) then to the lists directly (minimizing vote splitting in the smaller constituencies); in each list the seats are attributed to the candidates reaching the most votes.

Results

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Executive Council

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Results of the 2003 Zürich Executive Council election
Candidate Party Votes %
Markus Notter SP 147,204 91.05
Christian Huber SVP 131,071 81.07
Rita Fuhrer SVP 129,987 80.40
Verena Diener Grüne 124,255 76.86
Regine Aeppli SP 119,567 73.96
Dorothé Fierz FDP 107,566 66.53
Rüdi Jeker FDP 89,828 55.56
Hans Hollenstein CVP 86,959 53.79
Hans Rutschmann SVP 86,617 53.58
Gerhard Fischer EVP 40,294 24.92
Markus Bischoff AL 14,593 9.03
Rolf Boder SD 6,358 3.93
Marian Ignacy Danowski Ind. 161 0.10
Scattered votes 47,249 29.24
Total 1,131,709 63.69
Blank votes 633,372 35.65
Invalid votes 12,382 0.70
Total votes 1,776,824 7×
Total ballots 262,320 –
Registered voters/Turnout 793,155 33.07
Source: wahlen.zh.ch[2]

In the Executive Council, the SP fielded both incumbent councillor Markus Notter and former cantonal councillor and current national councillor Regine Aeppli, hoping to gain a seat from any other party except incumbent green federal councillor Verena Diener running for re-election.[3] They would gain the seat from the CVP, where Winterthur executive city councillor Hans Hollenstein failed to hold Ernst Buschor's seat; FDP councillor Rüdi Jecker narrowly saved his seat over Hollenstein and the third SVP candidate Hans Rutschmann by only three thousand votes.[4] Women represented a majority of the council for the first time.[1]

Cantonal Council

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Results of the 2003 Zürich Cantonal Council election
14
53
9
29
12
61
1
1
PartyVotes%+/–Seats+/–
Swiss People's Party82,68030.24+1.6161+1
Social Democratic Party71,55826.17+4.0853+10
Free Democratic Party43,51915.91−3.6429−8
Green Party21,4857.86+2.2114+3
Christian Democratic People's Party17,4286.37−0.2912±0
Evangelical People's Party14,0045.12+0.149±0
Federal Democratic Union5,7572.11+0.301±0
Swiss Democrats3,6981.35−1.051−1
Aktive Senioren2,3820.87−0.790−2
Alternative List2,3540.86+0.450−1
Others8,5833.14––
Total273,448100.00–180–
Source: wahlen.zh.ch,[5] BfS[6]

The SVP remained the largest party by gaining a seat but their ally Aktive Senioren, who caucused with them, lost both their seats. The largest gains were done by the SP, gaining ten seats, well over their expectations. The FDP lost seven seats, while the Greens overtook the CVP as the fourth largest party. The Ring of Independents, which had been historically strong in the canton, lost their representation for the first time since 1939 as they had disbanded two years earlier.[1]

Panachage and apparentements played a role, mainly for smaller parties: the Greens received a large number of panachage votes from the SP, while the Statistical Office calculated most of the EVP's seats and the EDU and SD's sole seats were owed to apparentements.[7][8]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Clivaz, Romain; et al. "Dossier: Kantonale Wahlen - Zürich". anneepolitique.swiss.
  2. ^ "Regierungsratswahlen Kanton Zürich provisorisches Endresultat". wahlen.zh.ch (in German). Archived from the original on 2006-07-13. Retrieved 2022-09-16.
  3. ^ "In den Startlöchern für die Wahlen 2003". Neue Zürcher Zeitung. 2002-09-28. Retrieved 2022-09-16.
  4. ^ "Regierungsratsmitglieder ab 1831". zh.ch. Retrieved 2022-09-16.
  5. ^ "Parteistärke und Sitzverteilung 2003 provisorisches Zwischenresultat". wahlen.zh.ch (in German). Archived from the original on 2004-07-23. Retrieved 2022-09-16.
  6. ^ "Kanton Zürich: nationale und kantonale Wahlen seit 1919". bfs.admin.ch (in German). Bundesamt für Statistik. 25 March 2019.
  7. ^ Statistischen Amts des Kanton Zürich (2003-09-17). "Die Zürcher Kantonsratswahlen 2003". zh.ch. Retrieved 2022-09-16.
  8. ^ Bentz, Dominic (2003). "Die Zürcher Kantonsratswahlen 2003" (PDF). Statistik.info. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2005-06-01.
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