Parliamentary elections will be held in Switzerland on Sunday 22 October to elect all members of the National Council and Council of States.

The event takes place every four years, and will later be followed by the elections of the Federal Council, Switzerland’s government and collegial presidency in the coming months.

Which parties are running in the elections?

The Swiss People’s Party (SVP) currently holds 53 of the 200 seats in the National Council, led by its president Marco Chiesa.

The SVP's closest challengers in the current standings are the Social Democrat party (39 seats), followed by the FDP/Liberals (29), Greens (28) and Centre/Mitte (28).

The Green Liberals also hold 16 seats, with five other parties also holding at least one seat in parliament.

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What are the main issues?

In a poll conducted by the Sotomo Research Institute, 36 percent of respondents said climate change was an important policy issue, topped only by health insurance premiums that symbolize cost of living pressures.

Reto Foellmi, economics professor at the University of St. Gallen, said he expected, however, a change in the tone and focus of the political debate.

"On climate change, the government and the parliament will take the foot off the gas... and with migration the tone will get harder," he said.

Some, including Celine Amaudruz, SVP upper house candidate, believe the Greens might pay the price for their lack of response to controversial actions of radical climate activists.

Green Party's candidate for parliament's upper house, Delphine Klopfenstein Broggini, said geopolitical tensions and conflicts have played a role in voters turning elsewhere.

Against such a backdrop, the SVP's focus on capping Switzerland's population – currently 8.7 million – at 10 million has resonated with voters, political analyst Michael Hermann said.

Who is likely to do well?

The right-wing People's Party is set to bolster its position, with the Greens tipped as the biggest losers.

The Greens are projected to slip 3.5 points to 9.7 percent, according to the poll, while the SVP is forecast to gain 2.5 points to 28.1 percent.

Political analyst Pascal Sciarini said the result is unlikely to change the make-up of Switzerland's government, the Federal Council, where seven cabinet positions are divided among the top four parties, limiting the scope for big policy shifts.

The Social Democrats are projected to cement their position as the number two party with 18.3 percent of the vote, while the Liberals and centrist Mitte party, both polling at around 14 percent, will battle for the number three spot.

Hermann said the public may have grown wary of the Greens' agenda: "The issue is too big for a small country, that’s what some people think."

Many of the 5.5 million eligible voters have already cast their vote, with postal ballots being sent out at the start of October.

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