Municipal elections Mayor of Rapperswil-Jona SG beaten by challenger

In Rapperswil-Jona SG, Mayor Martin Stöckling (FDP) missed out on re-election for the time being on Sunday. Barbara Dillier (non-party) and Boris Meier (GLP) both received more votes than the incumbent. Dillier missed the absolute majority by a relatively narrow margin. A second round of voting must now decide the outcome.

Barbara Dillier (non-party) achieved the best result by far in the elections for the municipal presidency in Rapperswil-Jona SG. The mayor of Fischenthal (ZH) received 4,101 votes. The absolute majority was 4655 votes.

GLP councillor Boris Meier also did better than incumbent Martin Stöckling (2534 votes) with 2583 votes.

The 49-year-old Stöckling ran for a third term of office. However, he came under fire for various projects, such as a controversial sale of land to a subsidiary of a Chinese company.

One of Stöckling's harshest critics was publisher Bruno Hug, who supported Stöckling in his first election in 2016 when he pushed the then mayor Erich Zoller (center) out of office.

Hug has since campaigned for Stöckling to be voted out of office. It was he who put Barbara Dillier forward as an opposing candidate for the presidency of the second-largest city in the canton of St. Gallen.

No competitive election for the city council seats

As of 2025, the Rapperswil town council will change from seven partially part-time councillors to a body with five full-time members.

Five people ran for the five seats on the town council. Three incumbents were re-elected. Joe Kunz (non-party) was elected to the Rapperswil City Council for the first time as a new candidate. The Green Party candidate, Tanja Zschokke, narrowly missed out on an absolute majority.

SDA