Bern, Switzerland — Vancouver has one less rival in the race to host the 2010 Games after the Swiss capital of Bern withdrew from the race Friday following a resounding rejection by voters.

Bern bid administrators said Friday that they had agreed to wind up their organization by the end of the month.

In a referendum last Sunday, 78 per cent of voters in the canton (state) of Bern opposed a loan of 7.5 million Swiss francs ($7.9-million Cdn) to co-finance the national bid. By a similar margin they also refused to back a 15-million-franc ($15.7-million) loan to expand ice-skating facilities in the canton.

Although a survey earlier this year showed that two-thirds of people were in favour of the bid, voters were disenchanted after the government was forced to bail out of this year's $1.4-billion Swiss National Exhibition.

The International Olympic Committee last month picked the Swiss bid as a finalist in the race to host the event, along with Vancouver, the Austrian resort of Salzburg and Pyeongchang, South Korea. The decision will be made in Prague next July 2.

However, the IOC highlighted serious problems with the Swiss proposal. It said the bid "does not best respond to the needs of the athletes and could create significant organizational difficulties."

Switzerland last hosted the Winter Olympics in St. Moritz in 1948 and has bid unsuccessfully three times since 1969. Three years ago the IOC selected Turin, Italy for the 2006 Winter Olympics, ahead of the Swiss town of Sion which was considered to be technically superior and to have more popular support. The furious Swiss suspected that IOC members were taking their revenge on Swiss IOC official Marc Hodler, who blew the whistle on Olympic corruption.

The Bern bid had a proposed budget of $990-million, including $123-million in long-term sports facilities. It would have straddled the border between French-speaking and German-speaking Switzerland, with events also in St. Moritz, where the population speaks the Romansch dialect.

The eastern Alpine town of Chur already is considering whether to make a bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics.