Seats in the National Council: Zurich +1, Basel-Stadt -1

The Ordinance on the distribution of seats for the complete renewal of the “lower chamber” of the Swiss Parliament on 22 October 2023 has been adopted

In the National Council election on 22 October 2023, the Canton of Zurich will have 36 seats, i.e. one more than in the previous legislative period.
The canton of Basel-Stadt will have one less seat (4 seats).
On September 1, 2021, at the same time as the approval of the data on the permanent resident population at the end of 2020, the Federal Council adopted the new Ordinance on the distribution of seats for the full renewal of the National Council to be held in 2023.
Based on the cantonal demographic data, the canton of Zurich will have one more seat in the next National Council election and the canton of Basel-Stadt one less.

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Two hundred members of parliament elected by the people through direct suffrage

The Federal Constitution provides that the 200 seats on the National Council are to be allocated every four years by the people by direct suffrage according to the proportional system and that each canton is to form an electoral district (article 149 of the Constitution).
Only in electoral districts with only one seat in the National Council is the election carried out according to the majority system.
The seats are distributed among the cantons in proportion to their population, although each canton is entitled to at least one seat. The method of seat distribution is comprehensively regulated in Article 17 of the Federal Political Rights Act.

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Allocation of seats in the National Council among the cantons at each new legislative period

The distribution of seats among the cantons is calculated every four years on the basis of data from register-based surveys carried out in the first calendar year following the last elections for the full renewal of the National Council.
The “permanent resident population in Switzerland” (Article 6a of the Ordinance on Political Rights) is decisive. This procedure was used for the first time in the 2015 National Council election.

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