Nobody is interested in a president

Switzerland voted for a new president. Well, not exactly Switzerland or the 7.78 million Swiss, but a combined session of both houses of parliament, called Vereinigte Bundesversammlung.

246 members had the right to cast a vote. Only 223 ballot papers were handed out, indicating that 23 parliamentarians did not bother to show up. From the 222 ballot papers cast 106 bore the name of the Socialist candidate Micheline Calmy-Rey (65). She will be the Swiss president for one year, starting on 1st January 2011.

27 ballot papers were blank, 6 void. The rest carried names of other candidates.

Anybody interested to adopt the Swiss republican model, where 106 votes from 246 electors are sufficient to make someone president?

Even the arch-conservative Neue Zürcher Zeitung was not happy with this presidential election: Calmy-Rey bricht den Negativrekord (Calmy-Rey breaks negative record).