Manuela Weichelt-Picard holds onto her seat in the cantonal government

Having examined closely the objections raised by a number of people including prominent city lawyers, the administrative court has ruled that votes previously regarded as invalid in relation to the elections for members of the cantonal government are indeed to be counted. This means that the make-up of the cantonal government remains as it was following the results on election day on Sunday 5  October with Manuela Weichelt-Picard of the Alternative Green party having in fact increased support over her closest rival, Martin Pfister of the CVP party.
 
It has taken the administrative court some 18 days to examine the facts carefully and come to the conclusion that the 2,897 votes, or 10% of those cast, hitherto regarded as void, were indeed to be regarded as valid. This means that Manuela Weichelt-Picard, who, with 12,558 votes, achieved the fewest number of votes in the elections to the cantonal government now has an official majority of no fewer than 2,042 votes over her nearest rival in the election, Martin Pfister of the CVP party, rather than 205, as before.
 
As previously reported, many voters found the electoral correspondence difficult to understand and, instead of using the official ballot paper, a large number inadvertently voted with a similar looking explanatory sheet providing details about the new voting system. After all it was the first time in more than 120 years that the members of the cantonal government were elected by a majority vote rather than through proportional representation.
 
In other words the make-up of the cantonal government remains the same as announced on the evening of the elections (see second photograph) and indeed the same as over the past four years
 
It appears the cantonal chancellery failed to make a clear enough distinction between the real ballot papers and other documentation of very similar appearance deemed for information purposes only. Indeed both the cantonal government and an advisory committee had warned about this in advance of the elections. It is hoped that lessons from this will be learned for the future.
 
The main photograph shows a relieved and joyous Manuela Weichelt-Picard with fellow member of the cantonal government, Heinz Tännler of the SVP party, behind her.