Swiss politics: Less transparency, more spending on right

An attempt to peel back some of the secrecy that surrounds campaign spending in Switzerland indicates political parties on the right are the big spenders – with the least amount of transparency. Ahead of the federal election in October, political parties were asked to respond to a survey by the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), the parent company of swissinfo.ch. The results, published on Thursday, show that more than CHF20 million ($20.5 million) in spending was reported in the run up to the October 18 election, when voters will choose a new Swiss parliament for a statutory four-year term. But that’s just a fraction of the total amount that parties and candidates are expected to spend during this campaign cycle. Experts say the 2015 election may turn out to be the most expensive in history, possibly costing as much as CHF170 million, which would be a third more than was spent in 2011. It’s hard to put an exact figure on it, but the survey conducted by ...