Meet the elected CSA team
The world-wide online election of the Council of the Swiss Abroad for the 2025-2029 legislature has now concluded. It is a significant milestone, as it is the first time that the election was held via e-voting on a global scale – an important step forward towards transparent and democratic election of the people representing the Swiss diaspora.
In Australia it was the second time that the four delegates representing Australia, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu were chosen via e-voting. Of the nine candidates that stood for election, the following candidates received the highest number of votes and are therefore duly elected:
Carmen TROCHSLER
(Meet Carmen here)
Roland ISLER
(Meet Roland here)
Barbara ZINGG
(Meet Barbara here)
Beat KNOBLAUCH
(Meet Beat here)
The candidate receiving the fifth highest number of votes and therefore elected Deputy Council of the Swiss Abroad is:
Thomas HOFER
(Meet Thomas here)
The newly elected team will commence their term in August, at the constituent meeting of the Council in Bern.
Thank you!
The Swiss Alliance Australia (SAA), as the organiser of the Australian election, would like to sincerely thank all candidates, elected or not, for their enthusiasm, their willingness to serve and their commitment to represent the Swiss Community downunder (see all the candidates here).
Thank-you also to the Consulate General of Switzerland and the Swiss clubs for their support of the election. Special thanks as well to Claude Alain Staub and Ernst Steinmann for coordinating the election in Australia and Switzerland.
Most of all, a big thank-you goes to the voters – 5.8% of eligible Swiss in Australia and associated Pacific nations chose to elect their representatives.
Finally, at the OSA level, sincere thanks go to the small group of committed Council delegates – Noël Frei, Antoine Belaieff, Monique Heymann, Andreas Feller, Tobias Orth, and Hans Broder – along with Laurent Perriard at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, who worked tirelessly to enable nearly 50 countries to conduct democratic elections for their delegates.
Click here for the world-wide election results.