Every late April, the tiny Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden votes for local leaders and magistrates in accordance with a tradition dating back to the 15th century: a show of hands in the town square.
This year's Landsgemeinde open-air assembly, held as always on the last Sunday of April, drew several thousand people under the blazing sun in Appenzell, capital of the eponymous German-speaking northeastern canton of 17,000 inhabitants.
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