Grand Council of Bern
The Grand Council is the parliament of the Swiss canton of Bern.
It consists of 160 members elected by proportional representation for a four-year term of office. The French-speaking part of the canton, the Bernese Jura has 12 seats guaranteed, and 3 seats are guaranteed for the French-speaking minority of the bilingual district of Biel/Bienne.Election
The council is re-elected every four years. Like other legislatures in Switzerland, elections use party list proportional representation. There are nine constituencies, based on the districts of the Canton.Composition
The last election was held on 27 March 2010, and resulted in a victory for the Swiss People's Party. However, whilst they maintained their plurality position, the main gainers were the Conservative Democratic Party, who gained eight seats on their pre-election position, having split from the SVP since the 2006 election. The Social Democratic Party and FDP.The Liberals both lost considerable ground.
