Politics
Within the Swiss Confederation Obwalden is a half canton. This gives Obwalden all the rights and duties of full cantons, with the exception that the canton can only send one deputy to the Council of States. The small size of the canton allows a small government with only five members.
In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Christian Social Party which received 56.9% of the vote. The other party in the election was the SVP with 43.1%. The Christian Social Party jumped from having no candidate or votes in 2007 to a majority in 2011.
In the Cantonal Council election, on 7 March 2010, the center maintained its dominance of the Cantonal Council. The Christian Democrats lost three seats, but remained the largest party with 20. The Swiss People's Party gained five seats to the become the second largest party, while the FDP.The Liberals retained 10 seats but dropped to the third largest. The Social Democratic Party remained steady with 6 seats and the Christian Social Party lost two seats to have 8.
The evolving party membership in the Kantonsrat is shown in the following chart (for selected dates):
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Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“A baby changes your dinner party conversation from politics to poops.”
—Maurice Johnstone (20th century)
“In politics if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.”
—Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925)
“Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion.”
—Richard M. Nixon (b. 1913)