Development
At the occasion of the parliament elections 2003 in Switzerland VAAs has been offered to the public, especially smartvote, for the first time. At that time the offer was restricted to national parliament elections but in the meantime smartvote has been offered for many cantonal (state) and also local city elections. At the beginning the member of parliaments were sceptical vis-à-vis the VAA but today more than 80% of the candidates normally participate. With the national parliament elections 2007 smartvote became the most important reference for political positioning of politicians and candidates in the Swiss public.
The development is supported by a public research institution, namely the project of the National Center of Competence in Research: Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century (NCCR Democracy) of the University of Zurich.
2005 Politools was a consultant in the development of a Bulgarian VAA koimipasva. In 2007 Politools contributed a part of their system to a Scottish VAA Holyrood2007 and further spreads of the tool are foreseen, even if the necessary financial resources are not yet secured completely. Since 2008 Politools co-develops a VAA for the European Parliament Elections of June 2009 - the so-called EU Profiler in a consortium constisting of the European University Institute in Florence and the Dutch company Kieskompas.
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