| Parliament name (generic / translated) |
Bundesversammlung - Assemblée fédérale - Assemblea federale / Federal Assembly |
| Structure of parliament |
Bicameral |
| Chamber name (generic / translated) |
Ständerat - Conseil des Etats - Consiglio degli Stati / Council of States |
| Related chamber (for bicameral parliaments) |
Nationalrat - Conseil national - Consiglio nazionale / National Council
|
| LEGAL FRAMEWORK |
| Electoral Law |
1 January 1900
|
| Mode of designation |
directly elected 46 |
| Constituencies |
- 20 multi-member (2 seats each) constituencies representing the cantons
- 6 single-member constituencies representing what were previously known as half-cantons (Obwald, Nidwald, Basle-City, Basle-Country, Appenzell Outer-Rhodes and Appenzell Inner-Rhodes) |
| Voting system |
Majority:
Members are generally chosen by simple majority vote with the exception of the cantons of Jura and Neuchâtel (proportional vote)..
Elections to the Council of States are governed by internal cantonal law. However, cantons may not designate their government as an electoral body of their members of parliament in the National Council. Elections are held therefore by the cantonal parliament or by referendum. Currently, in all cantons, members of the Council of States are directly elected by the people.
By-elections are generally held to fill vacancies arising between general elections.
Voting is compulsory in a small number of cantons, where those abstaining without a justifiable reason are subject to a small fine. |
| Voter requirements |
(governed by cantonal law) |
| CANDIDATES |
| Eligibility |
(governed by cantonal law) |
| Incompatibilities |
- National Councillors (members of the National Council)
- members of the Federal Council
- Federal judges
- judges of federal tribunals who have not been elected by the Federal Assembly
- persons elected by the Federal Assembly or whose nomination was confirmed by it (e.g. Secretary General of the Federal Assembly)
- high-ranking army officials
- federal civil servants, including civil servants of decentralized administrative units, of departments within the Parliament, of federal tribunals, of the Secretariat of the watchdog agency for the Attorney Generals Office and of the Attorney Generals Office, as well as members of non-parliamentary committees with decision-making powers, for so long as special laws do not provide otherwise
- members of governing bodies of organizations and legal persons - public or private - outside the administration which are invested with administrative functions and in which the Confederation holds a significant stake
- persons who represent the Confederation in organizations or legal persons - public or private - outside the administration which are invested with administrative functions and in which the Confederation has a significant stake |
| Candidacy requirements |
(cantonal law) |
Compare data for parliamentary chambers in the Electoral system module
