Swiss canton elects first woman council chief

GENEVA: Swiss lawyer Angela Koller on Sunday won election as the first woman to lead a conservative canton in northeastern Switzerland which only gave women the right to vote three decades ago.

The 41-year-old Centre Party candidate was elected as Appenzell Innerrhoden´s first female Landammann, equivalent to mayor, the Keystone-ATS news agency reported. Her win, against three other candidates, made her the first woman ever elected Landammann in the canton, where women were only granted the right to vote 34 years ago.

As every year on the last Sunday in April, the vote for regional and local leaders and judges took place at Appenzell Innerrhoden´s Landsgemeindeplatz -- not by casting ballots but by way of raised hands.

The tradition of the Landsgemeinde, or open-air assembly, dates back to the 14th century. But women have only been permitted to take part since 1991 -- a full 20 years after women were permitted to vote in Swiss federal elections.

And women might still be standing on the outside had Bern not found the situation so embarrassing that it made the almost unheard of move of ordering Appenzeller men to let their mothers, wives and daughters into the voting ring.