2023 Zürich cantonal elections

The 2023 Zürich cantonal elections will be held on 12 February 2023, to elect the seven members of the cantonal Executive Council and the 180 members of the Cantonal Council.

Electoral system

Executive Council

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

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 constituency

Constituency		Seats	Change
I	Zürich city districts 1 & 2	5	=
II	Zürich city districts 3 & 9	12	=
III	Zürich city districts 4 & 5	5	=
IV	Zürich city districts 6 & 10	8	−1
V	Zürich city districts 7 & 8	6	=
VI	Zürich city districts 11 & 12	12	=
VII	Dietikon	11	=
VIII	Affoltern	7	+1
IX	Horgen	15	=
X	Meilen	12	=
XI	Hinwil	11	=
XII	Uster	16	=
XIII	Pfäffikon	7	=
XIV	Winterthur city	13	=
XV	Winterthur land	7	=
XVI	Andelfingen	4	=
XVII	Bülach	18	=
XVIII	Dielsdorf	11	=

Candidates

Executive Council

All seven incumbents are running for re-election: Mario Fehr (ind.), Jacqueline Fehr (SP), Ernst Stocker (SVP), Sylvia Steiner (CVP), Carmen Walker Späh (FDP), Martin Neukom (Grüne), andd Natalie Rickli (SVP). Mario Fehr was elected in 2011 then re-elected in 2015 and 2019 as a social democrat, but left the party in 2021 and contests this election as an independent.

The FDP fielded Peter Grünenfelder as their second candidate in hope of retaking their seat lost in 2015; the SP fielded Priska Seiler Graf as their second candidate to compensate for Mario Fehr's defection.

Minor candidates are Bruno Scherrer or the Green-Liberals, Anne-Claude Hansch for the Alternative List, and Daniel Dommer for the EVP.

Cantonal Council

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

Name			Ideology	2011 result
				Votes (%)	Seats
	SVP	Swiss People's Party Schweizerische Volkspartei	National conservatism Right-wing populism	24.5%	45 / 180
	SP	Social Democratic Party Sozialdemokratische Partei	Social democracy Democratic socialism	19.3%	35 / 180
	FDP	FDP.The Liberals FDP.Die Liberalen	Classical liberalism Conservative liberalism	15.7%	29 / 180
	GLP	Green Liberal Party Grünliberale Partei	Green liberalism Social liberalism	12.9%	23 / 180
	GPS	Green Party Grüne Partei	Green politics Progressivism	11.9%	22 / 180
	DM	The Centre Die Mitte	Christian democracy Social conservatism	5.8%	8 / 180
	EVP	Evangelical People's Party Evangelische Volkspartei	Christian democracy Social conservatism	4.2%	8 / 180
	AL	Alternative List Alternative Liste	Socialism	3.2%	6 / 180
	EDU	Federal Democratic Union Eidgenössisch-Demokratische Union	National conservatism	2.3%	4 / 180

The Party of Labour, Aufrecht/Free List, Yes to stop growth, and SansPapierPolitiques are also contesting this election, meaning a total of 13 parties contest this election, as many as in 2019.

Opinion polls

Executive Council

Polling firm	Fieldwork date	Sample size	M. Fehr Ind.	Rickli SVP	Stocker SVP	Neukom GPS	J. Fehr SP	Späh FDP	Steiner DM	P. S. Graf SP	Grünen­felder FDP	Scherrer glp	Hensch AL	Sommer EVP	Jetzer Aufrecht
GfS Bern/NZZ	24 Nov – 8 Dec 2021	2'500	59	54	54	49	42	41	37	30	29	22	14	9	4

Cantonal Council

Polling firm	Fieldwork date	Sample size	SVP	SP	FDP	glp	GPS	DM	EVP	AL	EDU	Others	Lead
GfS Bern/NZZ	24 Nov – 8 Dec 2021	2'500	24.0	18.1	16.1	14.3	11.5	6.3	4.1	3.5	1.9	0.2	5.9
2019 election	24 Mar 2019	–	24.5	19.3	15.7	12.9	11.9	5.8	4.2	3.2	2.3	1.7	5.2

Results

Executive Council

Note: percentages here are calculated based on the amount 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 2019 Zürich Executive Council election

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Hans-Peter Amrein	Ind.		0.00
	Josua Dietrich	Free List		0.00
	Jacqueline Fehr	SP		0.00
	Mario Fehr	Ind.		0.00
	Peter Grünenfelder	FDP		0.00
	Anne-Claude Hansch	AL		0.00
	Patrick Jetzer	Aufrecht		0.00
	Martin Neukom	Grüne		0.00
	Natalie Rickli	SVP		0.00
	Bruno Scherrer	GLP		0.00
	Bernhard Schmidt	Ind.		0.00
	Priska Seiler Graf	SP		0.00
	Daniel Sommer	EVP		0.00
	Sylvia Steiner	DM		0.00
	Ernst Stocker	SVP		0.00
	Peter Vetsch	Ind.		0.00
	Carmen Walker Späh	FDP		0.00
	Florian Wegmann	Ind.		0.00
Scattered votes				0.00
Total				0.00
Blank and invalid votes				0.00
Total votes				7×
Valid ballots				0.00
Invalid ballots				0.00
Total ballots				–
Registered voters/Turnout				0.00
Source:

Cantonal Council

Results of the 2023 Zürich Cantonal Council election

Party
	Swiss People's Party
	Social Democratic Party
	FDP.The Liberals
	Green Liberal Party
	Green Party
	The Centre
	Evangelical People's Party
	Alternative List
	Federal Democratic Union
	Aufrecht / Free List
	Labour Party
	Yes to stop growth
	SansPapierPolitiques
Total
Source: app.statistik.zh.ch

References

Category:Cantonal elections in Zürich Category:2023 elections in Switzerland