2007 Finnish parliamentary election

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2007 Finnish parliamentary election
← 2003 18 March 2007 2011 →
All 200 seats to the Parliament
101 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout65.0%
  First party Second party Third party
  Matti Vanhanen Jyrki Katainen Eero Heinäluoma
Leader Matti Vanhanen Jyrki Katainen Eero Heinäluoma
Party Centre National Coalition Social Democratic
Leader since 2003 2004 2005
Last election 55 seats, 24.7% 40 seats, 18.6% 53 seats, 24.5%
Seats won 51 50 45
Seat change Decrease4 Increase10 Decrease8
Popular vote 640,428 616,841 594,194
Percentage 23.11% 22.26% 21.44%
Swing Decrease1.58pp Increase3.71pp Decrease3.03pp
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
  Martti Korhonen Tarja Cronberg Päivi Räsänen
Leader Martti Korhonen Tarja Cronberg Päivi Räsänen
Party Left Alliance Green League Christian Democrat
Leader since 2006 2005 2004
Last election 19 seats, 9.93% 14 seats, 8.01% 7 seats, 5.34%
Seats won 17 15 7
Seat change Decrease2 Increase1 Steady0
Popular vote 244,296 234,429 134,790
Percentage 8.82% 8.46% 4.86%
Swing Decrease1.11pp Increase0.45pp Decrease0.47pp
  Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party
  Stefan Wallin Timo Soini Yrjö Hakanen
Leader Stefan Wallin Timo Soini Yrjö Hakanen
Party Swedish People's Finns Communist Party of Finland
Leader since 2006 1997 1990
Last election 8 seats, 4.61% 3 seats, 1.57% 0 seats, 0.76%
Seats won 9 5 0
Seat change Increase1 Increase2 Steady0
Popular vote 126,520 112,256 18,277
Percentage 4.57% 4.05% 0.66%
Swing Decrease0.05pp Increase2.48pp Decrease0.10pp
Prime Minister before election

Matti Vanhanen
Centre

Prime Minister

Matti Vanhanen
Centre

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Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 18 March 2007.[1] Early voting was possible from the 7–13 March. The 200 members of the Eduskunta were elected from 15 constituencies.

Election themes included a reduction of income tax[citation needed] and VAT on food. A proposal for a guaranteed minimum income was introduced by some parties.[2] The election debates were characterised by the high economic growth in Finland in recent years, which was thought to mean the government would have extra money to use on welfare services and transfer payments. Largest advertising budgets were spent by the Coalition Party (€2.46M) and the Center Party (€2.48M) with SDP far behind (€1.37M).[3]

Altogether, 2,004 candidates were nominated, 799 of whom were women. About three-quarters of the candidates were nominated by parties currently represented in Parliament. The number of female MPs rose as 84 women were elected (formerly 75), now comprising a record 42% of the 200 MPs.

According to the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, the number of advance voters rose in comparison with the previous election in 2003. After the Tuesday before the Sunday election, when advance voting ended, the voter turnout had already reached 29.2%, which was more than at the same point in the 2003 elections. However, total voter turnout, at 67.8%, fell short of the 2003 figure, 69.7%, reaching a new low since the 1939 elections.

Many prominent MPs decided not to stand in the election. Former Prime Minister (1995–2003) and Speaker of the outgoing Parliament, Paavo Lipponen left his seat, as did the fifth-longest serving minister of all time, Jan-Erik Enestam, and former Left Alliance party leader Suvi-Anne Siimes, who had harshly criticized her party after her resignation as chairman in 2006. Some former MPs made a comeback, former Finance Minister and presidential candidate Sauli Niinistö and the first European Green minister, Pekka Haavisto, former minister and National Coalition chairman Pertti Salolainen, former foreign minister Paavo Väyrynen and rock musician Pertti "Veltto" Virtanen being the most famous examples. Niinistö also set a record for the highest number of personal votes, 60,498, which is almost twice as high as the previous record, and with the application of the d'Hondt method used in Finland, as many as four other National Coalition candidates were elected to Parliament on the strength of these votes.

The date of the election was near to the 100th anniversary of the first Finnish parliamentary elections, which were held on 15–16 March 1907, and were the first elections held under universal suffrage in Europe.

Electoral system[edit]

Some constituencies elect only six or seven MPs, resulting in a high election threshold for a given party,[4] favouring large parties and reducing the proportionality of the result. Because of this, the party leader of the Greens, Tarja Cronberg, lost her seat in the district of Northern Karelia, the party's only one, despite their getting 11.7% of the vote there. Her case, made seemingly even more unfair by her impressive personal total of 7,802 votes, greater than that of most of those elected, has been held up in the media as a symbol of the flaws in the present system. The constituencies of 2007 were mostly based on the old provinces; the largest difference was counting Helsinki as a separate district. The case has sparked a multi-party initiative that could result in a reform, to become effective in the 2015 parliamentary elections at the earliest.

Results[edit]

Results by province .

The elections were a major victory for the opposition National Coalition Party under Jyrki Katainen. It gained ten seats and became the second-largest party in Finland. The main government partners, the Centre Party and the Social Democrats, both lost ground. With the Left Alliance also losing seats, the labour parties received the worst result in the 100-year history of Finnish democracy; for the Social Democrats, the result was the worst since 1962, while the Left Alliance has lost seats in both elections held since 1999. The Centre Party, despite the loss, maintained its position as the biggest party in Parliament, with one seat more than the National Coalition. It was also the only time, except for the parliamentary election of 1930, that the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party together have an absolute majority in Parliament. The outcome led to the formation of a new center-right government and the left-leaning Social Democrats were left out in opposition for the first time since 1995.[5]

Winners also include the True Finns, who gained two seats. Party leader Timo Soini in particular took in a massive personal total of almost 20,000 votes, the third greatest in the country. The Green League gained one seat with its best ever showing in parliamentary elections, but party leader Tarja Cronberg lost her seat in the small district of Northern Karelia. The Swedish People's Party gained one seat as well, although losing votes compared to the 2003 elections.

Incumbent Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, as party leader of the Centre Party, formed a new government with Centre Party, National Coalition, the Greens and Swedish People's Party. These parties have 125 seats out of 200 in the parliament. The government coalition is centre-right and calls itself "blue-green government" after the blue colour of National Coalition and the green colours of Centre and the Greens.

The election was a major defeat (8 seats lost, 15% fewer won than in 2003) for the Social Democrats, and sparked an internal investigation. The party conducted a campaign that had a simplistic anti-Conservative message. Meanwhile, the trade union SAK, strongly associated with SDP, conducted a similar anti-Conservative campaign. The association between the two organizations was abundantly clear, as the SDP's chairman Eero Heinäluoma was a former SAK director. The campaigns failed spectacularly, and according to the internal investigation, the attempt to challenge the Conservatives was a failure. One TV commercial, which showed a capitalist devouring a meal and laughing how "workers do not vote", drew widely publicized criticism even before its launch, when the TV commercial was shown in news (and on YouTube).[6][7] The SDP's internal investigation also pointed out that the party's campaign promises had poor credibility, since the SDP had been in the government for years but (at least perceivably) had not delivered on them. For example, the SDP chairman Eero Heinäluoma had prevented a rise in the student benefit.

As many as eight very small parties were removed from the registry of political parties as a result of their repeated failure to gain seats in the 2003 and 2007 elections: Suomen työväenpuolue (Workers Party), Independence Party, Liberaalit, Forces for Change in Finland, For the Poor, Yhteisvastuu puolue ("Common Responsibility Party"), Suomen Isänmaallinen Kansallis-Liitto (named after IKL, or Isänmaallinen kansanliike, an organization banned in 1944) and Finnish People's Blue-Whites. Currently, there are three parties in the registry that failed to gain seats in the 2007 elections: Communist Party of Finland, Suomen Senioripuolue (a pensioners' party) and For Peace and Socialism - Communist Workers Party. The removal is not punitive, however, as these parties are allowed register themselves again.

After the Finnish Parliamentary elections on 18 March 2007, the seats were divided among eight parties as follows:[8][9]

Party Votes % Seats +/–
Centre Party 640,428 23.1 51 –4
National Coalition Party 616,841 22.3 50 +10
Social Democratic Party 594,194 21.4 45 –8
Left Alliance 244,296 8.8 17 –2
Green League 234,429 8.5 15 +1
Christian Democrats 134,790 4.9 7 0
Swedish People's Party 126,520 4.6 9 +1
Finns Party 112,256 4.1 5 +2
Communist Party of Finland 18,277 0.7 0 0
Pensioners for People 16,715 0.6 0 0
Civic Alliance (C-FS-LIB-ObS) 9,561 0.4 1 New
Independence Party 5,541 0.2 0 New
Finnish People's Blue-Whites 3,913 0.1 0 0
Liberals 3,171 0.1 0 0
For the Poor 2,521 0.1 0 0
Communist Workers' Party – For Peace and Socialism 2,007 0.1 0 0
Workers' Party 1,764 0.1 0 New
Åland Social Democrats 1,607 0.1 0 0
Patriotic People's Movement 821 0.0 0 0
Joint Responsibility Party 164 0.0 0 0
Others 1,420 0.1 0 0
Invalid/blank votes 19,516 – – –
Total 2,790,752 100 200 0
Registered voters/turnout 4,292,436 65.0 – –
Source: Tilastokeskus[10]
Popular vote
KESK
 
 23.11%
KOK
 
 22.26%
SDP
 
 21.44%
VAS
 
 8.82%
VIHR
 
 8.46%
SKL
 
 4.86%
RKP
 
 4.57%
PS
 
 4.05%
Others
 
 2.44%
Parliament seats
KESK
 
 25.50%
KOK
 
 25.00%
SDP
 
 22.50%
VAS
 
 8.50%
VIHR
 
 7.50%
RKP
 
 4.50%
SKL
 
 3.50%
PS
 
 2.50%
Others
 
 0.50%

Results by province[edit]

Province Centre Party National Coalition Party Social Democratic Party Left Alliance Green League Christian League Swedish People's Party True Finns Other Electorate Votes Valid votes Invalid votes
Southern Savonia 30,759 15,530 22,704 1,419 5,714 2,925 0 2,653 531 131,962 83,064 82,235 829
Northern Savonia 45,607 21,696 24,760 14,253 5,073 10,316 0 4,334 1,210 203,878 127,993 127,249 744
North Karelia 30,391 10,041 26,942 2,163 9,955 2,574 0 2,428 747 136,308 85,743 85,241 502
Kainuu 18,565 4,216 4,666 9,877 1,143 1,166 0 1,863 331 69,657 42,084 41,827 257
Uusimaa 73,802 219,607 152,262 50,274 110,217 25,917 48,328 34,274 16,718 1,098,278 737,007 731,399 5,608
Eastern Uusimaa 5,510 8,859 9,075 2,416 3,941 1,143 14,984 2,760 571 73,877 49,586 49,259 327
Southwest Finland 38,610 66,793 53,281 25,937 22,868 11,377 13,369 6,168 5,662 372,966 245,571 244,065 1,506
Tavastia Proper 19,696 19,457 27,939 6,863 5,687 6,924 0 1,824 1,375 135,934 90,528 89,765 763
Päijänne Tavastia 18,687 27,251 24,963 8,882 5,941 7,652 0 2,358 3,614 162,621 100,172 99,348 824
Kymenlaakso 19,724 23,606 25,983 9,901 4,432 5,978 0 5,671 636 152,153 96,719 95,931 788
South Karelia 19,974 15,586 20,573 1,826 3,645 5,034 0 3,228 588 111,798 71,035 70,454 581
Central Finland 47,058 21,008 34,710 10,561 9,859 11,142 0 3,616 3,849 219,648 142,704 141,803 901
Southern Ostrobothnia 52,803 21,457 12,254 3,259 1,548 4,532 243 9,237 1,428 157,666 107,258 106,761 497
Ostrobothnia 9,275 10,116 12,055 6,192 1,462 7,430 47,390 2,436 774 149,323 97,713 97,130 583
Satakunta 31,045 26,799 36,527 14,958 4,324 3,003 0 6,726 1,561 191,729 125,777 124,943 834
Pirkanmaa 40,458 62,995 59,865 24,161 22,024 15,655 0 12,044 13,298 380,804 252,153 250,500 1,653
Central Ostrobothnia 16,445 2,528 6,411 1,891 533 4,957 2,206 2,781 308 58,148 38,280 38,060 220
Northern Ostrobothnia 80,248 27,771 24,629 27,110 12,959 6,124 0 6,123 2,339 298,260 188,407 187,303 1,104
Lapland 41,771 11,525 14,595 22,353 3,104 941 0 1,732 774 162,315 97,442 96,795 647
Source: European Election Database

References[edit]

  1. ^ Election Guide
  2. ^ The Green Party published its manifesto in English
  3. ^ Porvarihallitus: Yritysraha nosti porvarit valtaan, accessed 28.3.2011.
  4. ^ Conservatives thrashed SDP in Finnish vote
  5. ^ Ritter, Karl (19 March 2007). "Governing Center Party edges opposition in Finnish election". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 27 November 2007. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
  6. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLx-xnBEswo
  7. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jed0F8QVwaA
  8. ^ http://www.yle.fi/vaalit/tulospalvelu/index.htm
  9. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-03-20. Retrieved 2007-03-19.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. ^ Eduskuntavaalit 1927–2003 Tilastokeskus 2004

External links[edit]

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