Grand Council of Bern

The Grand Council (German: Grosser Rat, French: Grand conseil) is the parliament of the Swiss canton of Bern.

Grand Council Grosser Rat (German) Grand conseil (French)
Type
Type	Unicameral
Leadership
President	Jürg Iseli
Structure
Seats	160
Political groups	SVP/UDC 44   SP/PS 32   Greens (GPS/PES) 19   FDP/PLR 18   The Centre 12   GLP/PVL 16   EVP/PEV 9   EDU/UDF 6   PSA 1   AL 1   Ensemble Socialiste 1   Independent 1 [1][2]
Elections
Voting system	Party-list proportional representation Hagenbach-Bischoff system
Last election	2022
Meeting place
Rathaus
Website
https://www.gr.be.ch/

It consists of 160 members (as of 2006) elected by proportional representation for a four-year term of office. The French-speaking part of the canton, the Bernese Jura (districts of Courtelary, La Neuveville and Moutier) 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. Seats were last reallocated for the 2022 election.^[3]

Districts of the canton of Bern

Constituency	Boundaries	Seats
Biel-Bienne - Seeland	Districts of Biel/Bienne and Seeland	27
Mittelland North	North Part of Bern-Mittelland	22
Bern	City of Bern	20
Mittelland-South	South Part of Bern-Mittelland	20
Thun	District of Thun	16
Oberland	Oberland region (contains three districts)	16
Emmental	District of Emmental	15
Bernese Jura	District of Jura Bernois	12
Oberaargau	District of Oberaargau	12

Composition

The last election was held in 2022.^[4]

2018–2022 composition of the Grand Council