This is the reason The city of Zurich is holding the "most unnecessary election ever"
Zurich is electing a mayor - although the result has already been decided. SP candidate Raphael Golta is the only candidate, but the population still has to go to the polls.
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- Raphael Golta (SP) is the only candidate in the second round of voting for the Zurich city presidency because the FDP and other parties have decided not to run again.
- Nevertheless, the population must go to the polls because the municipal bylaws prohibit silent elections.
- In theory, however, voters could put another elected city councillor on the ballot paper - as was the case in 1990, when a non-candidate from the FDP almost threatened the SP candidate.
On March 8, the people of Zurich elected a left-wing city government and a left-wing parliament. It remained to be seen who would become the future mayor and succeed the long-serving mayor Corinne Mauch (SP), who is stepping down after 17 years in office.
The only thing that was clear at the time was that the Social Democrats would also have a good chance in the election for mayor. Their candidate Raphael Golta received almost twice as many votes as the FDP candidate Përparim Avdili, who finished in second place. GLP candidate Serap Kahriman and SVP candidate Ueli Bamert also had no chance. All four had one thing in common: they received too few votes to win the election in the first round.
What has happened since then?
The SVP was not even allowed to run in the second ballot because it has no one in the city government. A few days after March 8, the FDP also decided: "We won't be standing in the election for mayor. There was also a "Njet" from the other elected city councillors. After all, to be elected as mayor, you have to be elected to the city council.
That left only one remaining: SP candidate Raphael Golta.
Insanely, the electoral law of the city of Zurich requires that the population be called to the polls in the second ballot even if there is only one candidate - even if there is only one name on the candidate sheet:
Golta Raphael, SP, 1975, lic. phil., city councillor
This has raised eyebrows in Zurich. The Tages-Anzeiger newspaper soberly stated in an article that his election would be a "formality". The other Zurich daily NZZ ran the headline: "There will be a ballot that is probably not a ballot at all".
The reason is simple: the municipal regulations of the city of Zurich, in other words the city's constitution, require a ballot in any case: The people must be able to elect their mayor.
A "silent election" is prohibited. This is the term used to describe an election in which there are as many candidates as seats and the election is therefore decided without a ballot.
Thomas Benkö, the former editor-in-chief of Blick am Abend, wrote in a LinkedIn post: "The city of Zurich is having the most unnecessary second round of voting ever." Benkö, who himself lives in a village within the municipality of Zurich, emphasized that he did not want to criticize the SP candidate for this: "He can't help the procedure. But elections with only one candidate always leave me with a slightly sour aftertaste."
As convincing as Benkö's contribution may be, the reverse has also been criticized in the past. At the beginning of the year, something historic happened in the canton of Nidwalden when there were seven candidates for seven seats in the cantonal council election.
Because Nidwalden electoral law allows for silent elections, these seven politicians were promptly elected to the cantonal government without a single voter having to get up and go to the ballot box. The last time this happened was in 2006 in the canton of Obwalden.
Political scientist Marc Bühlmann, who as director of Année politique suisse is one of the best experts on Swiss democracy, told SRF: "This practically never happens at cantonal level." If push comes to shove, the population can veto certain transactions.
The "Nidwaldner Zeitung" (CH Media) also criticized the fact that the government had been elected "in a sleeping car". This is "problematic under certain circumstances".
The situation is different in the city of Zurich: Golta is the only official candidate. However, all other elected city councillors are also eligible.
In 1990, a similar situation led to a surprise. The FDP's Thomas Wagner decided not to run in the second round of voting - and still posed a threat to the SP's only official candidate, Josef Estermann: the Freisinniger received just over 3,000 votes fewer than the Social Democrat. As the Tages-Anzeiger recently recalled.
It is questionable whether this could happen again this year because one voter writes down a middle-class name out of spite or conviction: FDP city councillor Michael Baumer made it through the city council election in a weak eighth place. GLP councillor Andreas Hauri even ended up in ninth place.
The remaining six eligible city councillors all have SP or Green Party credentials and are therefore unlikely to oppose an official candidate from their own camp.
Correction note: Serap Kahriman from the GLP was forgotten in the list of candidates. Her name has been added to the paragraph.
