Federal Act
on Political Rights
(PRA)¹

The 200 seats in the Na­tion­al Coun­cil shall be al­loc­ated among the can­tons in ac­cord­ance with the fol­low­ing pro­ced­ure:⁴⁰

a.

Pre­lim­in­ary al­loc­a­tion:

1.

The res­id­ent pop­u­la­tion of Switzer­land is di­vided by 200. To ob­tain the first al­loc­a­tion num­ber, the res­ult is roun­ded up to the nearest whole num­ber, un­less it is already a whole num­ber, in which case it is in­creased to the next highest whole num­ber. Each can­ton whose pop­u­la­tion is lower than this num­ber is al­loc­ated one seat, and is ex­cluded from the fur­ther stages of the al­loc­a­tion pro­ced­ure.

2.

The res­id­ent pop­u­la­tion of the re­main­ing can­tons is di­vided by the num­ber of seats that have yet to be al­loc­ated. To ob­tain the second al­loc­a­tion num­ber, the res­ult is roun­ded up to the nearest whole num­ber, un­less it is already a whole num­ber, in which case it is in­creased to the next highest whole num­ber. Each can­ton whose pop­u­la­tion is lower than this num­ber is al­loc­ated one seat, and is ex­cluded from the fur­ther stages of the al­loc­a­tion pro­ced­ure.

3.

This pro­ced­ure is re­peated un­til the re­main­ing can­tons reach the fi­nal
al­loc­a­tion num­ber.

b.

Prin­cip­al al­loc­a­tion: each re­main­ing can­ton is al­loc­ated as many seats as its pop­u­la­tion di­vided by the fi­nal al­loc­a­tion num­ber.

c.

Fi­nal al­loc­a­tion: the re­main­ing seats are di­vided among the can­tons with the highest frac­tions of a whole num­ber re­main­ing. Where more than one can­ton has the same re­main­ing frac­tion, the can­ton or can­tons with the lower or low­est re­main­ing num­ber that res­ults from the di­vi­sion of their pop­u­la­tion by the first al­loc­a­tion num­ber are ex­cluded. If this also res­ults in the same re­main­ing num­ber for more than one can­ton, the al­loc­a­tion of the re­main­ing seats is de­cided by draw­ing lots.