The 2015 Zürich cantonal elections were held on 12 April 2015, to elect the seven members of the cantonal Executive Council and the 180 members of the Cantonal Council.

This election resulted in a large gain for the bourgeois parties (SVP, FDP, CVP), as the FDP gained eight seats in the Cantonal Council and the CVP gained one executive councilor, resulting in the alliance holding an overall majority in the national council and five of the seven executive councilors.

Electoral system

Executive Council The Executive Council contains seven members elected using a two-round majoritarian system. In the first round, electors have up to seven votes and the seven 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 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.

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.

+Number of seats by constituencyConstituencySeatsChangeI Zürich city districts 1 & 2 4 −1II Zürich city districts 3 & 9 12 =III Zürich city districts 4 & 5 5 =IV Zürich city districts 6 & 10 9 =V Zürich city districts 7 & 8 6 =VI Zürich city districts 11 & 12 12 =VII Dietikon 11 =VIII Affoltern 6 =IX Horgen 15 =X Meilen 13 =XI Hinwil 12 =XII Uster 16 =XIII Pfäffikon 7 =XIV Winterthur city 13 =XV Winterthur land 7 =XVI Andelfingen 4 =XVII Bülach 17 =XVIII Dielsdorf 11 +1

Candidates

Executive Council Five of the seven incumbents councilors ran for re-election: Mario Fehr (SP), Thomas Heiniger (FDP), Ernst Stocker (SVP), Markus Kägi (SVP), and Martin Graf (Grüne). The first four were seen as safe seats.

Incumbent councilors Ursula Gut (FDP) and Regine Aeppli (SP) stood down, with cantonal councilor Carmen Walker Späh (FDP) and national councilor Jacqueline Fehr (SP) running to replace them. Former councilor Hans Hollenstein (CVP) defeated narrowly in 2011 did not run, with the CVP running cantonal councilor Sylvia Steiner in his place.

The bourgeois parties (SVP, FDP, and CVP) ran as the "top-5" ticket, with the goals of unseating Martin Graf and gaining a fifth councilor for the alliance. The pre-election polls showed a tight race between Steiner and Graf for the last seat.

Three candidates from minor parties ran: Markus Bischoff for the Alternative List, Nik Gugger for the EVP, and Marcel Lenggenhager for the BDP.

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

NameIdeology2011 resultVotes (%)SeatsSVPSwiss People's PartySchweizerische VolksparteiNational conservatismRight-wing populism29.6%SPSocial Democratic PartySozialdemokratische ParteiSocial democracyDemocratic socialism19.3%FDPFDP.The LiberalsFDP.Die LiberalenClassical liberalismConservative liberalism12.9%GPSGreen PartyGrüne ParteiGreen politicsProgressivism10.6%GLPGreen Liberal PartyGrünliberale ParteiGreen liberalismSocial liberalism10.3%CVPChristian Democratic People's PartyChristlichdemokratische VolksparteiChristian democracySocial conservatism4.9%EVPEvangelical People's PartyEvangelische VolksparteiChristian democracySocial conservatism3.8%BDPConservative Democratic PartyBürgerlich-Demokratische ParteiChristian democracySocial conservatism3.5%EDUFederal Democratic UnionEidgenössisch-Demokratische UnionNational conservatism2.6%ALAlternative ListAlternative ListeSocialism1.6%

The Pirate Party ran again, along with Integrale Politik ZH and the Young Socialists, while the Swiss Democrats did not run, meaning a total of 13 parties contested this election, as many as in 2011.

Results

Executive Council 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 2015 Zürich Executive Council electionCandidatePartyVotes %Thomas HeinigerFDPMario FehrSPErnst StockerSVPMarkus KägiSVPSylvia SteinerCVPCarmen Walker SpähFDPJacqueline FehrSPMartin GrafGrüneMarkus BischoffALNik GuggerEVPMarcel LenggenhagerBDPDani SchafrothInd.Scattered votesTotalBlank and invalid votesTotal votes7×Valid ballotsInvalid ballotsTotal ballots–Registered voters/TurnoutSource: This election was an upset in the opposite direction than 2011. CVP candidate Sylvia Steiner regained the CVP's seat while overtaking both Carmen Walker Späh and Jacqueline Fehr, who were expected to perform better. Green candidate Martin Graf lost his seat by a margin of six thousand votes behind Jacqueline Fehr.

Thomas Heiniger topped the polls with over 82%, overtaking Mario Fehr for first place. The four regular incumbents (Heiniger, M. Fehr, Stocker, and Kägi) were re-elected comfortably while the race was closer between the other candidates. Both SVP candidates saw their vote share slightly increase.

The "top-5" ticket of bourgeois parties won in an upset, with five of the top six candidates, and flipping a fifth seat in the council.

Results by district

+Vote share of each candidate by districtDistrictALJ. FehrSPM. FehrSPGrafGPSEVPFDPKägiSVPBDPInd.CVPSVPSpähFDPScatteredAffoltern 30.4 61.1 77.7 59.8 21.0 85.1 81.0 20.1 5.6 68.4 85.0 67.1 37.8Andelfingen 22.4 53.5 68.6 54.4 28.3 83.8 94.2 25.8 4.9 64.0 97.9 62.4 39.6Bülach 25.0 54.1 73.6 51.2 26.1 85.2 85.1 26.0 5.0 67.4 89.4 65.7 46.3Dielsdorf 21.2 50.7 69.0 48.7 22.0 88.2 96.3 19.9 3.9 70.4 97.6 67.5 44.6Dietikon 24.8 53.2 71.9 46.3 16.5 90.1 88.2 20.8 4.0 74.2 91.3 71.7 46.9Hinwil 28.0 51.0 67.9 50.6 27.2 85.8 85.9 25.7 4.4 70.1 91.7 66.3 45.5Horgen 26.5 55.3 78.8 51.5 21.1 91.8 80.9 22.2 3.8 71.9 93.5 68.8 34.0Meilen 25.5 48.8 70.4 48.5 19.1 96.8 85.0 23.3 4.4 73.3 90.2 78.0 36.8Pfäffikon 23.6 56.2 73.0 62.9 28.8 84.7 82.5 24.1 3.2 68.4 86.1 64.5 42.0Uster 31.5 58.4 77.7 54.6 20.4 83.8 76.1 29.8 3.6 66.2 81.1 63.5 53.4Winterthur 37.9 71.6 82.8 64.4 37.2 72.9 69.7 26.2 4.6 58.2 74.2 54.4 45.7Zürich 62.3 83.0 96.9 77.9 18.4 74.8 55.2 19.9 8.3 57.6 58.4 58.3 29.2Total 36.9 63.6 80.5 60.3 23.4 82.8 75.1 23.3 5.3 65.2 79.9 63.8 39.7

Cantonal Council

The SVP retained its plurality of votes and seats in the council, and the social democrats maintained second place by gaining one seat. The liberals made the largest gains by far, gaining eight seats, in what the Tages-Anzeiger described as a "triumphant comeback" after "decades of decline". Both ecologist parties lost over a quarter of their seats, while the Alternative List gained two seats. The Liberals' gains allowed the "top-5" alliance of bourgeois parties (SVP, FDP, and CVP) to re-gain a majority, while giving them a larger influence within the alliance.

Results by constituency

+Number of seats for each party by constituencyConstituency SVP SP FDP GLP GPS CVP EVP AL EDU BDPTotalseats SVP SP FDP GLP GPS CVP EVP AL EDU BDP PPI Zürich City 1 & 2 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 – 4 17.6 26.6 22.3 8.7 11.9 4.7 1.7 5.6 0.8 – –II Zürich City 3 & 9 2 4 2 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 12 20.4 29.8 12.2 7.6 10.6 5.2 2.7 8.4 0.6 0.9 1.5III Zürich City 4 & 5 0 2 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 5 9.3 31.3 9.2 9.9 15.4 2.2 1.0 17.8 0.6 0.8 2.7IV Zürich City 6 & 10 2 3 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 9 16.7 30.0 16.2 8.8 10.4 3.9 2.2 9.1 0.6 1.3 0.9V Zürich City 7 & 8 1 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 6 16.3 24.6 27.3 8.3 10.7 4.6 2.3 4.8 0.4 0.8 –VI Zürich City 11 & 12 3 3 2 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 12 26.4 27.2 11.6 7.6 8.1 6.5 3.6 4.3 1.5 2.1 1.2VII Dietikon 4 2 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 11 36.3 17.5 20.0 5.6 3.7 8.3 3.8 1.3 1.1 1.6 0.7XIII Affoltern 2 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 – 6 32.3 18.1 18.1 8.2 7.0 3.8 8.7 1.0 2.2 – –IX Horgen 4 3 3 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 15 29.5 16.9 21.7 7.5 5.9 8.2 4.2 1.3 1.5 2.9 0.4X Meilen 4 2 4 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 13 31.2 14.7 28.8 7.7 5.0 4.5 2.2 1.1 2.8 2.0 –XI Hinwil 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 12 36.1 13.3 14.2 6.9 6.4 5.6 5.9 1.3 6.7 3.6 –XII Uster 5 3 2 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 16 33.5 17.7 15.7 9.1 5.6 4.7 3.1 1.2 2.6 5.7 0.6XIII Pfäffikon 3 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 7 36.2 16.2 14.6 7.1 5.9 2.9 8.3 0.8 4.6 3.0 0.4XIV Winterthur City 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 13 21.9 24.2 12.6 8.3 9.2 5.4 7.6 3.8 2.3 2.8 1.7XV Winterthur Land 3 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 7 40.1 12.8 14.0 8.7 5.1 3.1 6.9 0.8 3.1 4.5 0.8XVI Andelfingen 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 39.3 14.5 17.1 5.2 8.8 1.8 3.0 0.9 3.6 5.8 –XVII Bülach 6 2 3 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 17 37.5 16.8 16.6 6.3 5.0 4.0 4.6 0.9 4.2 3.5 0.5XVIII Dielsdorf 5 1 2 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 11 45.0 14.4 13.7 6.5 5.6 3.4 2.6 0.5 5.9 1.7 0.8Total 54 36 31 14 13 9 8 5 5 5 180 30.0 19.7 17.3 7.6 7.2 4.9 4.3 3.0 2.7 2.6 0.7

References