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Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal elections in 2007 are laced with some curious details:

• Swiss 2007 federal elections will mark the first time that elections are being monitored by a team of international observers, the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe). Head of the team, American Paul DeGregorio, says they will be looking at several issues, including campaign spending, which is not regulated in Switzerland, as well as the inability of many Swiss voters abroad to get their ballots sent in on time, reports TSR. The ballots are mailed out three weeks before elections.
• The Swiss Federal Council, or Cabinet, will not be elected during the 21 October federal elections, but 12 December 2007. Every four years the Cabinet is selected
  by the two houses of Parliament several weeks after the federal
  elections, to give new members time to settle in. Voters, therefore, do
  not elect Cabinet members directly and in the case of a notable
  personality such as Christophe Blocher of the UDC (People’s Party) his
  party could be successful in the elections but not necessarily manage
  to get him a seat in the Cabinet, if other parties are strongly opposed.
• Political advertising is taboo on radio and television but the law hasn’t caught up with multimedia communications, so political parties are using the Internet to advantage
• Zug and Zurich have political parties which don’t move beyond cantonal borders. In Zug it’s the Alternative Kanton Zug whose main theme is that not everyone benefits from the canton being a tax haven. Zurich it’shas its Green spinoff, Gruenliberale Partei Kanton Zurich, which replaces the Greens’s gender equality and peace platforms with financial stability and individual self-reliance.
• The 2007 election is the most costly to date, at about SFr50 million, with SFr20 being spent on media advertising, which is one-third higher than in 2003. Few details are available about the cost of previous campaigns.