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2011 Zürich cantonal elections

The 2011 Zürich cantonal elections were held on 3 April 2011, to elect the seven members of the cantonal Executive Council and the 180 members of the Cantonal Council.

2011 Zürich cantonal elections
← 2007 3 April 2011 2015 →
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
 
Party Social Democrats FDP.The Liberals
Elected Mario Fehr
137,035, 81.54% 		Thomas Heiniger
134,061, 79.77%
  Regine Aeppli
121,144, 72.08% 		Ursula Gut-Winterberger
123,349, 76.96%
  Third party Fourth party
 
Party Swiss People's Greens
Elected Ernst Stocker
129,943, 77.32% 		Martin Graf
120,815, 71.88%
  Markus Kägi
123,159, 73.28%
Cantonal Council
Party Vote % Seats +/–
Swiss People's

29.63% 54 −2
Social Democrats

19.32% 35 −1
FDP.The Liberals

12.93% 23 −6
Greens

10.57% 19 0
Green Liberals

10.27% 19 +9
Christian Democrats

4.86% 9 −4
Evangelical People's

3.78% 7 −3
BDP

3.47% 6 New
Federal Democrats

2.57% 5 0
Alternative List

1.63% 3 +1
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

The Green Party gained a seat on the Executive Council but the FDP-SVP coalition retained a majority of four seats.[1] In the Cantonal Council, the SVP retained a plurality but no alliance reached an overall majority.[2]

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 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.[2]

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.

Candidates

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Executive Council

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Six of the seven incumbent councillors Ursula Gut (FDP), Hans Hollenstein (CVP), Thomas Heiniger (FDP), Regine Aeppli (SP), Markus Kägi (SVP), and Ernst Stocker (SVP, elected in a by-election in 2009) ran for re-election.[1]

Incumbent Social Democratic executive councillor Markus Notter retired, with national councillor Mario Fehr running to hold the open seat.

The Greens fielded again Illnau-Effretikon mayor Martin Graf, who had reached an overall majority four years earlier but had failed to reach the top seven candidates needed to be elected. The EVP ran with national councillor Maja Ingold, while the Green-Liberals did not run any candidate for the executive council.[1]

Cantonal Council

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

Name Ideology 2007 result
Votes (%) Seats
SVP Swiss People's Party
Schweizerische Volkspartei 		National conservatism
Right-wing populism 		30.5%
56 / 180
SP Social Democratic Party
Sozialdemokratische Partei 		Social democracy
Democratic socialism 		19.5%
36 / 180
FDP FDP.The Liberals[a]
FDP.Die Liberalen 		Liberalism
Conservative liberalism 		16.0%
29 / 180
GPS Green Party
Grüne Partei 		Green politics
Progressivism 		10.5%
19 / 180
CVP Christian Democratic People's Party
Christlichdemokratische Volkspartei 		Christian democracy
Social conservatism 		7.3%
13 / 180
GLP Green Liberal Party
Grünliberale Partei 		Green liberalism
Social liberalism 		5.8%
10 / 180
EVP Evangelical People's Party
Evangelische Volkspartei 		Christian democracy
Social conservatism 		5.2%
10 / 180
EDU Federal Democratic Union
Eidgenössisch-Demokratische Union 		National conservatism 2.8%
5 / 180
AL Alternative List
Alternative Liste 		Socialism 0.9%
2 / 180
  1. ^ Formerly the Free Democratic Party

The Swiss Democrats also ran after having lost their seats in 2007. Three new parties contested this election: the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP, who seceded from the SVP in 2008), the European Reform Party (ERP), and the Pirate Party (PP), meaning a total of 13 parties ran in this election.[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 2011 Zürich Executive Council election
Candidate Party Votes %
Mario Fehr SP 137,035 81.54
Thomas Heiniger FDP 134,061 79.77
Ernst Stocker SVP 129,943 77.32
Ursula Gut-Winterberger FDP 129,349 76.96
Markus Kägi SVP 123,159 73.28
Regine Aeppli SP 121,144 72.08
Martin Graf Grüne 120,815 71.88
Hans Hollenstein CVP 118,487 70.50
Maja Ingold EVP 68,996 41.05
Scattered votes 93,485 55.62
Total 1,176,474 61.51
Blank and invalid votes 736,318 38.49
Total votes 1,912,792 7×
Valid ballots 273,256 96.26
Invalid ballots 10,626 3.74
Total ballots 283,882 –
Registered voters/Turnout 855,243 33.19
Source: statistik.zh.ch[3][4]

The results were a major upset and surprise as CVP candidate Hans Hollenstein fall from second to eighth, losing his seat to Green candidate Martin Graf by only two thousand votes, despite the polls predicting Hollenstein would finish in the top 3 candidates.

New candidate Mario Fehr gained a seat (retaining 2 seats for the SP) and topped the polls with over 81% of the votes by gaining votes from the bourgeois camp voters. FDP candidates saw their scores decrease slightly while the SVP gained slightly in votes.

The elections saw a high amount of consensus, as all elected candidates were voted on at least 44% of the ballots; Hollenstein's defeat was partly attributed to strategical voting based on his second-highest score in the previous election as well as opinion polls, but also to his policies' lack of appeal to leftist voters.

Despite the Green gain from the CVP, the FDP and SVP retained their majority of four seats in the executive council.[1]

Results by district

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Vote share of each candidate by district
District Aeppli
SP 		Fehr
SP 		Graf
GPS 		Gut
FDP 		Hein.
FDP 		Holl.
CVP 		Ingold
EVP 		Kägi
SVP 		Stoc.
SVP 		Scattered
Affoltern 72.4 78.0 72.5 75.1 81.9 67.7 40.7 79.6 83.6 48.5
Andelfingen 59.4 64.6 67.2 73.2 73.9 70.8 47.7 97.7 100.5 45.0
Bülach 62.6 71.4 61.9 78.7 81.8 67.2 38.7 86.3 88.5 62.9
Dielsdorf 60.5 67.8 58.1 78.1 80.4 71.2 34.2 94.7 94.7 60.4
Dietikon 64.7 70.9 56.6 81.2 84.9 71.9 31.1 86.1 89.0 63.7
Hinwil 60.5 70.4 60.5 79.8 81.5 69.9 40.0 89.5 94.1 54.0
Horgen 67.0 79.8 63.4 79.6 84.8 70.7 39.8 73.5 85.6 56.0
Meilen 61.3 69.5 59.5 95.9 95.2 69.0 35.5 82.9 87.5 43.7
Pfäffikon 62.5 71.6 74.7 77.5 79.8 74.6 37.1 82.5 86.5 53.2
Uster 68.7 78.4 68.4 77.7 81.0 69.8 35.6 73.3 77.2 69.9
Winterthur 67.5 79.3 71.7 70.2 72.1 81.9 57.2 66.6 70.0 63.5
Zürich 94.9 104.5 92.9 70.8 74.2 65.5 40.9 52.4 55.3 48.6
Total 72.1 81.5 71.9 77.0 79.8 70.5 41.1 73.3 77.3 55.6

Cantonal Council

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Results of the 2011 Zürich Cantonal Council election
3
19
35
7
19
23
6
9
54
5
PartyVotes%+/–Seats+/–
Swiss People's Party90,03529.63−0.8254−2
Social Democratic Party58,68719.32−0.1535−1
FDP.The Liberals39,29612.93−3.0423−6
Green Party32,11110.57+0.1319±0
Green Liberal Party31,19110.27+4.5119+9
Christian Democratic People's Party14,7744.86−2.389−4
Evangelical People's Party11,4793.78−1.457−3
Conservative Democratic Party10,5293.47New6New
Federal Democratic Union7,8152.57−0.245±0
Alternative List4,9451.63+0.363+1
Pirate Party1,7080.56New0New
Swiss Democrats1,2310.41−0.920±0
European Reform Party150.00New0New
Total303,816100.00–180–
Source: wahlen.zh.ch,[5] electoral protocol[6]

The SVP won a plurality of votes and seats, coming first but losing two seats; no bloc or alliance won an overall majority.[2]

There were few shifts between the three “blocs”, as the left-wing (SP, GP, and AL), centrist (EVP, GLP, FDP, CVP, and now BDP), and right-wing (SVP and EDU) each won a third of the votes and seats; there were larger swings within the centrist bloc as the FDP, CVP, and EVP lost support while the GLP and BDP made gains.

There was also an increased fragmentation of the council as the three largest parties all lost seats. Older parties tended to see their support dwindle or stagnate, while the largest gains went to the newer parties: the GLP nearly doubled their support while the BDP entered with six seats.[2]

Results by constituency

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Number of seats and share of votes for each party by constituency
Constituency SVP SP FDP GPS GLP CVP EVP BDP EDU AL Total
seats 		SVP SP FDP GPS GLP CVP EVP BDP EDU AL SD
I Zürich City 1 & 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 – 0 0 5 18.2 28.6 18.2 14.3 10.9 4.6 1.4 – 0.9 2.3 0.5
II Zürich City 3 & 9 3 3 1 2 1 1 0 0 0 1 12 20.6 29.9 7.8 14.3 10.2 5.1 2.6 1.7 0.7 4.8 1.4
III Zürich City 4 & 5 0 2 0 1 1 0 0 – 0 1 5 10.4 34.4 5.5 18.6 11.3 3.4 1.2 – 0.3 11.8 0.7
IV Zürich City 6 & 10 2 3 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 9 16.4 30.2 11.9 15.0 12.0 3.9 2.2 1.6 0.7 4.2 0.6
V Zürich City 7 & 8 1 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 6 16.7 23.7 19.2 16.2 12.3 4.5 2.0 2.0 0.5 2.4 0.4
VI Zürich City 11 & 12 4 3 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 12 26.5 27.0 8.2 11.0 9.3 6.1 3.4 2.2 1.6 2.1 1.4
VII Dietikon 4 2 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 11 35.9 17.8 16.6 7.6 5.7 7.8 3.8 2.0 1.1 1.2 0.5
XIII Affoltern 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 6 30.8 15.5 13.1 10.5 11.0 3.2 7.6 4.9 2.7 0.4 0.3
IX Horgen 4 3 2 1 2 1 1 1 0 0 15 29.0 17.5 16.9 8.7 9.5 7.6 4.5 3.6 1.6 0.5 –
X Meilen 4 2 3 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 13 31.4 13.3 22.8 8.0 12.2 4.4 2.4 2.6 2.4 0.4 –
XI Hinwil 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 12 35.8 13.6 9.7 9.0 9.3 5.7 5.5 4.2 6.6 0.6 –
XII Uster 5 2 2 1 2 1 0 2 1 0 16 31.8 17.5 10.8 8.2 13.1 4.3 2.6 6.8 2.5 0.8 1.0
XIII Pfäffikon 2 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 7 36.0 14.7 10.0 10.8 9.3 3.1 6.3 4.9 4.6 0.4 –
XIV Winterthur City 3 3 1 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 13 21.6 21.7 10.8 14.6 10.2 6.0 5.3 2.6 2.3 2.7 0.7
XV Winterthur Land 2 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 7 38.8 13.4 10.8 8.1 9.9 3.8 6.4 4.3 3.3 0.3 –
XVI Andelfingen 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 40.8 13.8 12.2 10.4 7.2 2.1 2.7 6.9 3.4 0.4 –
XVII Bülach 6 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 17 36.3 16.7 11.9 7.5 9.2 4.0 4.0 5.0 3.7 0.7 –
XVIII Dielsdorf 5 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 10 43.4 14.9 9.9 8.0 9.7 4.0 2.2 2.6 4.9 0.4 –
Total 54 35 23 19 19 9 7 6 5 3 180 29.6 19.3 12.9 10.6 10.3 4.9 3.8 3.5 2.6 1.6 0.4

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Bühlmann, Marc (2011-04-03). "Regierungsratswahlen Zürich 2011". Année politique Suisse (in German). Retrieved 2022-10-18.
  2. ^ a b c d e Bühlmann, Marc (2011-04-03). "Kantonsratswahlen Zürich 2011". Année politique Suisse. Retrieved 2022-10-19.
  3. ^ "Regierungsratswahlen 2011". statistik.zh.ch (in German). 2011-04-03. Archived from the original on 2011-10-12.
  4. ^ "Wahlbeteiligung im Kanton". statistik.zh.ch (in German). 2011-04-03. Archived from the original on 2014-12-02.
  5. ^ "Kantonsratswahlen 2011". wahlen.zh.ch (in German). 2011-04-04. Retrieved 2022-10-18.
  6. ^ "Wahlprotokolle" (PDF). wahlen.zh.ch. 2011-04-05.
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