The 1999 Finnish parliamentary election was held on March 21, 1999. Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen's Social Democrats remained the largest party of the Eduskunta, despite significant losses. Hence, Lipponen remained Prime Minister.

Issues, Campaign and Results

Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen's five-party "rainbow government" (Social Democrats, National Coalitioners, Left Alliance, Swedish People's Party and Greens) had been in power since April 1995. It had managed to keep Finland's economy growing, to reduce the state's budget deficit and to create jobs, although it had failed to halve the unemployment rate: in 1995, the unemployment had been 15.4 per cent and in 1999, it still stood at 10.2 per cent. This was, as the governing parties pointed out, still a better record than the previous centre-right government's performance: during its term (1991 to 1995), the unemployment had risen from 6.6 per cent to 15.4 per cent. The largest opposition party, Centrists, tried to become the largest party overall, and to re-join the government. They called for a work reform, which they claimed would make it easier for employers to hire new employees and for small enterprises to operate. Finland's largest labour unions rejected the proposed work reform, claiming that it would reduce the employees' job security and would excessively increase the employers' power. The Centrists also accused the government of not improving the Finnish economy enough, and of not slowing down sufficiently the large internal migration of Finns from the rural towns and small cities to the large economic growth centres, like the Helsinki and Tampere regions. Several parties hired as their candidates previously non-political or only locally politically active celebrities, such as Leena Harkimo, the manager of Helsinki's ice hockey team Jokerit, Lasse Virén, a former long-distance running Olympic champion, and Anni Sinnemäki, the songwriter of pop music group Ultra Bra. Some of these celebrities got elected. After the elections, Prime Minister Lipponen formed a new government of the same five parties. Only one of those parties left the government during the parliamentary term 1999-2003: the Greens moved into the opposition in May 2002, when the Parliament approved the construction of Finland's fifth nuclear power plant (see, for example, Hannakatri Hollmén et al., eds., What Where When 2000 - The Citizen's Yearbook / Mitä Missä Milloin 2000 - Kansalaisen vuosikirja, Helsinki: Otava, 1999, pages 208-211, 240-241; Jukka Hartikainen et al., eds., What Where When 2003 - The Citizen's Yearbook / Mitä Missä Milloin 2003 - Kansalaisen vuosikirja, Helsinki: Otava, 2002, pages 115-116; www.stat.fi/tup/suoluk/suoluk_tyoelama.html#tyottomyys).

Turnout	65.3%	−3.3
Turnout (in Finland)	68.3%	−3.6
Votes	2,710,095	−93,507
Invalid votes	28,804	+6 123

Party	MPs		Votes				MPs %/votes % & swing
			%		amount
Social Democratic Party of Finland Social Democratic Party of Finland The Social Democratic Party of Finland is one of the three major political parties in Finland, along with the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party. Jutta Urpilainen is the current SDP leader. The party has been in the Finnish government cabinet for long periods and has set many...	51	−12	22.86%	−5.4	612,963	−172,674	1,120,00
Centre Party Centre Party (Finland) The Centre Party is a centrist and Nordic agrarian political party in Finland. It is one of the four largest political parties in the country, along with the Social Democratic Party , the National Coalition Party and the True Finns , and currently has 35 seats in the Finnish Parliament...	48	+4	22.40%	+2.6	600,592	+48,589	1,070,04
National Coalition Party National Coalition Party (Finland) The National Coalition Party is a liberal conservative political party in Finland founded in 1918.The National Coalition Party is one of the four largest parties in Finland, along with the Social Democratic Party, the Centre Party and the True Finns...	46	+7	21.03%	+3.1	563,835	+66,211	1,090,00
Left Alliance Left Alliance (Finland) The Left Alliance is a left-wing political party in Finland. It was founded on the basis of the Finnish People's Democratic League and the Communist Party of Finland in 1990....	20	−2	10.88%	−0.3	291,675	−18,665	0,920,07
Green League	11	+2	7.27%	+0.8	194,846	+13,648	0,760,07
Swedish People's Party	11	--	5.12%	−0.0	137,330	−5,544	1,070,00
Christian League of Finland Christian Democrats (Finland) The Christian Democrats is a Christian democratic political party in Finland. Formerly known as the Finnish Christian League , the Christian Democrats have six seats in the Finnish Parliament and one in the European Parliament.The party was founded in 1958, chiefly from the Christian faction of...	10	+3	4.17%	+1.2	111,835	+29,524	1,200,02
Reform Group	1	–	1.06%	–	28,549	–	0,47
Young Finns Young Finns Young Finns was a liberal political party in Finland founded in 1994 and abolished in 1999. In the 1995 parliamentary elections, the party gained two seats, held by Risto Penttilä and Jukka Tarkka. In the 1999 election Young Finns failed to get any seats and it was discontinued...		−2	1.05%	−1.8	28,084	−49,982
True Finns True Finns True Finns or The Finns is a populist and nationalist political party in Finland, founded in 1995 following the dissolution of the Finnish Rural Party. The head of the movement is Timo Soini. In the 2011 Finnish parliamentary election, The party won 19.1% of votes, becoming the third largest party...	1	--a	0.99%	−0.3a	26,440	−9,745a	0,51
Communist Party of Finland			0.76%	–	20,442	–
Kirjava ”Puolue” – Elonkehän Puolesta		−1	0.39%	+0.1	10,378	+2,513
League for Free Finland			0.38%	−0.6	10,104	−17,963
Pensioners for People			0.20%	+0.0	5,451	+327
Liberal People's Party Liberal People's Party There are several political parties named Liberal People's Party in English:*Liberaalinen Kansanpuolue in Finland*Det Liberale Folkeparti in Norway*Folkpartiet Liberalerna in SwedenSee also the list of liberal parties....			0.19%	−0.4	5,194	−11,053
Pensioners Party of Finland			0.17%	+0.0	4,481	+507
Natural Law Party Natural Law Party The Natural Law Party was a transnational party based on the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It was active in up to 74 countries, and ran candidates in at least ten. Founded in 1992, it was mostly disbanded in 2004 but continues in India and in some U.S. states.The NLP viewed "natural law" as...			0.15%	−0.1	3,903	−2,916
For Peace and Socialism – Communist Workers' Party			0.13%	−0.0	3,455	−1,329
Others	1b	--	0.81%		21,734
Total	200	--	100%		2,681,291	−99,630
The cabinet	140	5	68,0%	1,8			1,03
The opposition	60	5	32,0%	1,8			0,94
a Compared with the result of Rural Party of Finland. b Liberals for Åland Liberals for Åland The Liberals for Åland is a liberal political party of the Åland Islands. The party is an observer at Liberal International. At the 2007 legislative elections, the party won 10 out of 30 seats. The current party leader is Viveka Eriksson.-Elections:... (5 870 votes, Ahvenanmaa constituency)
Source: Tilastokeskus 2004