Federal Elections, 21 October 2007

In response to an invitation from the President of the Swiss Confederation, ODIHR deployed an election assessment mission for the 21 October federal elections.

The mission was deployed from 14 to 24 October 2007. It was led by Paul DeGregorio of the United States and consisted of 10 election experts from nine OSCE participating States. In addition to experts based in Bern, the mission deployed teams to Zurich, Lucerne and Lausanne.

According to the mission's final report: "Switzerland is a parliamentary democracy with a long-standing democratic tradition, as was evidenced by these parliamentary elections, which were conducted accordingly with a high degree of public confidence. The Swiss electoral system of proportional representation generally encourages political diversity and pluralism, offering voters a wide and genuine choice. Interest in these elections was higher than recent past federal elections, resulting in a turnout of 48.9 per cent, the highest since 1987."

Election Assessment Team

Paul DeGregorio (United States)
Carlo Accame (Italy)
Irena Hadziabdic (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Giovanna Maiola (Italy)
Michael Meyer (Germany)
Raul Muresan (Romania)
Igor Popov (Ukraine)
Kate Sullivan (United Kingdom)
Anne Serafini (France)
Vadim Zhdanovich (Russian Federation)