OSCE observers to analyse Swiss vote counting error

The three OSCE experts plan to deliver a report in about two months' time. © Keystone / Alessandro Della Valle

The experts sent by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to observe the federal elections in Switzerland last Sunday will address in their report the counting error made by the Federal Statistical Office. The report should be available in roughly two months' time.

“The information that has reached us in the last few days, for example about the counting, will definitely be included in this report and the recommendations,” Katya Andrusz, a spokesperson for the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Thursday. However, she said it was still too early to draw any final conclusions.

A good ten days before the election last Sunday, three experts from the OSCE had travelled to Switzerland. They came from Greece, Spain and Belarus. The mission ended on Thursday.

+ Swiss election results revised after vote counting error

The focus of the monitoring was on party and campaign financing, online voting pilots and the participation of persons with disabilities in the electoral process. For the first time, national rules on the disclosure of campaign budgets and donations to campaigns and political actors were applicable during an election.

The three experts plan to deliver a report in about two months’ time. The ODIHR sent the team at the invitation of Switzerland, the OSCE wrote.

On Wednesday, it was revealed that the Federal Statistical Office had initially published incorrect tallies of votes for the parties. The vote shares for the Swiss People’s Party, the Centre and the Radical-Liberals had to be corrected downwards three days after election day.

The error had no effect on the distribution of seats in parliament. However, the correction has consequences for the ranking of party strengths: contrary to earlier indications, the Radical-Liberals remain the third-strongest political party.

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