2006 Executive Council Elections
The 2006 Executive Council elections occurred on April 9. While Councillors Egger, Gasche and Luginbühl ran for re-election (which they achieved easily), Councillors Andres, Annoni, Bhend and Zölch resigned, leaving the field unusually wide open.
The SVP, long the dominant party in Bern, unexpectedly made an attempt to seize control of the Council by fielding four candidates instead of the usual three. The parties left of center criticised this move as contrary to the tradition of concordance government. Despite the majority voting procedure and its alliance with the FDP, the SVP failed to attain its goal, losing one seat to the Social Democrats instead. As the FDP also lost one seat to the Greens, the governmental majority changed to the Left.
Together with the FDP, the parties right of center (usually referred to in Bern as bürgerlich, i.e., bourgeois) had slated six candidates:
- Urs Gasche, SVP (re-elected)
- Werner Luginbühl, SVP (re-elected)
- Hans-Jürg Käser, FDP (elected)
- Monique Jametti Greiner, SVP (not elected)
- Annelise Vaucher, SVP (for the Bernese Jura seat, not elected)
- Eva Desarzens, FDP (not elected)
The parties left of center, in turn, had agreed on a slate of four candidates:
- Barbara Egger-Jenzer, SP (re-elected)
- Philippe Perrenoud, SP (for the Bernese Jura seat, elected)
- Andreas Rickenbacher, SP (elected)
- Bernhard Pulver, GFL (elected)
The other candidates, fielded by minor parties or groups (different Christian parties, nationalists, French-speaking quasi-separatists, joke parties) were never considered to have a substantial chance of winning a Council seat.
Source: Official 2006 elections website
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