Bern, Oct 23 (IANS) The right-wing Swiss People’s Party is projected to be the biggest winner of the general elections in Switzerland after voters cast their ballots to choose a new parliament for the 2023-2027 legislative period.
According to final projections published at 8 p.m. on Sunday night, the Swiss People’s Party has won 28.9 percent of the vote, 3.3 percentage points up compared with its result in the elections in 2019, reports Xinhua news agency.
It was followed by the left-wing Social Democrats with 18 per cent of votes, while the left-wing Green Party garnered 9.2 per cent of the votes, losing four percentage points from last election.
Swiss media reported that the turnout for the Sunday election was 46.9 per cent, up from 45.1 per cent four years ago.
The final results of the elections are expected by Monday.
Since the 1970s, most seats of the Swiss legislative body usually go to the country’s four largest political parties: the Swiss People’s Party, the centre-right Radical-Liberals Party, the centre-right Centre Party and the left-wing Social Democratic Party.
The Swiss People’s Party made strong gains in 1999 and 2003, but in 2019 the Green Party massively expanded its voter base, ousting the Centre Party as the fourth most-represented party in the House of Representatives.
Founded in 1971, the Swiss People’s Party advocates a restrictive policy on immigrants and refugees, the principle of neutrality, no further political integration into Europe, and a restrictive taxation and financial policy.
–IANS
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