Finnish parliamentary election, 2003
Encyclopedia
The Finnish parliamentary election of 2003 was the 34th election to the Eduskunta
(parliament of Finland), held on 16 March 2003 after the termination of the previous parliamentary term. The largest winner of this election was the Centre Party
(Keskusta) led by Anneli Jäätteenmäki
, which overtook the Social Democratic Party of Finland
(SDP), becoming the largest party in the Eduskunta.
The election was held under the d'Hondt method
of party-list proportional representation
, where the electoral district
voted directly for the individual candidate, but each vote also benefitted the candidate's party. This, once again, provoked some criticism from voters who felt their votes helped candidates they would not have liked to see in power, due to differences between candidates of the same party. Still, Finland has employed the same party-oriented method since the very beginning of the country's parliamentary history — in its current form since the 1950s — and as the large majority of people are satisfied with the current system, it is unlikely to be changed in any way.
The parliament elected in 2003 sat until the parliamentary election of 2007
.
(in some cases several regions have been grouped into a single constituency), with the exception that the city of Helsinki
serves as its own constituency, instead of being part of the Uusimaa
region in this case. Each constituency elects a preset number of representatives to the Eduskunta, according to their population. The exact number of representatives each constituency elects may vary between elections, as their percentage of Finland's population varies, but the total number of elected representatives is always 200, of which 199 are from mainland. The autonomous region of Åland has been given a special status in that it will always have exactly one representative even if its population was not large enough (however during recent times, for example in 2003 elections, the population of Åland has in fact accounted almost exactly for 0.5% of total Finnish population, which would give it the one seat even without the special status).
and electoral associations. Any Finnish citizen over the age of 18 was eligible for candidacy, apart from incapacitated
persons and professional soldier
s. Each party or electoral union was allowed to set a maximum of 14 candidates per electoral district, or, in the case the district elected more than 14 members of parliament, an amount equal to that of the representatives elected.
Each Finnish citizen aged 18 or over on the election day had the right to vote in the election, no matter where they lived. The electorate consisted of a total of 4,220,951 people, 4,015,552 of whom were resident in Finland and 205,399 abroad.
had formed the government, but in 2003 Lipponen had to step aside when Centre Party began the negotiations for new government. This is thought to have caused embitterment within SDP, particularly Lipponen and his supporters.
Apart from two main parties, the results weren't particularly ground-breaking. The National Coalition suffered a defeat, though not a huge one. Nonetheless it considered the results as a clear disapproval. The Green League achieved its best results ever, but the Swedish People's Party lost significantly. The Christian Democrats were a peculiar case this time, as they gained more votes but at the same time lost seats. This was partly because in 1999 and before Christian Democrats had been in an election coalition with Centre Party and benefited from this, while the Centre had actually lost seats due to this arrangement, and thus discontinued it starting from 2003 (the Finnish adaptation of d'Hondt method allows pre-election coalitions or cartels between two or more parties). The Left Alliance continued its slow decline, while the small populist faction, True Finns, did not do as well as some had expected.
, or the Finnish cabinet
, was formed after the parliamentary election by the Centre Party, with its leader Anneli Jäätteenmäki
as Prime Minister
. A coalition government
was formed, composing of the two largest parties of the Eduskunta, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Centre Party, and a minor coalition partner, the Swedish People's Party, who has a history of being a partner in government since 1976. The new cabinet had eight ministers from both the SDP and the Centre Party, and two ministers from the Swedish People's Party.
However, this proved to be one of the shortest-lived cabinets in Finnish history, lasting only 69 days, after the "Iraq-gate" scandal led to the government falling on 24 June 2003. A new cabinet was formed by the Centre Party's Matti Vanhanen
, with largely the same composition as the previous cabinet.
Parliament of Finland
The Eduskunta , is the parliament of Finland. The unicameral parliament has 200 members and meets in the Parliament House in Helsinki. The latest election to the parliament took place on April 17, 2011.- Constitution :...
(parliament of Finland), held on 16 March 2003 after the termination of the previous parliamentary term. The largest winner of this election was the 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...
(Keskusta) led by Anneli Jäätteenmäki
Anneli Jäätteenmäki
Anneli Tuulikki Jäätteenmäki, Master of Laws was the first female Prime Minister of Finland, in office from 17 April 2003 to 24 June 2003....
, which overtook the 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...
(SDP), becoming the largest party in the Eduskunta.
The election was held under the d'Hondt method
D'Hondt method
The d'Hondt method is a highest averages method for allocating seats in party-list proportional representation. The method described is named after Belgian mathematician Victor D'Hondt who described it in 1878...
of party-list proportional representation
Party-list proportional representation
Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems emphasizing proportional representation in elections in which multiple candidates are elected...
, where the electoral district
Electoral district
An electoral district is a distinct territorial subdivision for holding a separate election for one or more seats in a legislative body...
voted directly for the individual candidate, but each vote also benefitted the candidate's party. This, once again, provoked some criticism from voters who felt their votes helped candidates they would not have liked to see in power, due to differences between candidates of the same party. Still, Finland has employed the same party-oriented method since the very beginning of the country's parliamentary history — in its current form since the 1950s — and as the large majority of people are satisfied with the current system, it is unlikely to be changed in any way.
The parliament elected in 2003 sat until the parliamentary election of 2007
Finnish parliamentary election, 2007
The Finnish parliamentary election of 2007 was the 35th election to the Eduskunta , held on 18 March 2007 after the termination of the previous parliamentary term. Early voting was possible from the 7–13 March. Two hundred MPs were elected from 15 constituencies.Election themes included a reduction...
.
Electoral districts
For the purposes of parliamentary elections, Finland has been divided into fifteen electoral districts. The boundaries of these constituencies correspond to those of administrative regionsRegions of Finland
Finland consists of 19 regions called in Finnish and in Swedish. The regions are governed by regional councils, which serve as forums of cooperation for the municipalities of a region. The main tasks of the regions are regional planning and development of enterprise and education. In addition,...
(in some cases several regions have been grouped into a single constituency), with the exception that the city of Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
serves as its own constituency, instead of being part of the Uusimaa
Uusimaa
Uusimaa, or Nyland in Swedish, is a region in Finland. It borders the regions Finland Proper, Tavastia Proper, Päijänne Tavastia and Kymenlaakso...
region in this case. Each constituency elects a preset number of representatives to the Eduskunta, according to their population. The exact number of representatives each constituency elects may vary between elections, as their percentage of Finland's population varies, but the total number of elected representatives is always 200, of which 199 are from mainland. The autonomous region of Åland has been given a special status in that it will always have exactly one representative even if its population was not large enough (however during recent times, for example in 2003 elections, the population of Åland has in fact accounted almost exactly for 0.5% of total Finnish population, which would give it the one seat even without the special status).
Numbers of representatives per electoral district, 2003-2007
The numbers of MPs per electoral district (see Electoral districts of Finland) in the 2003 parliamentary elections were as follows:- Helsinki: 21
- Uusimaa: 33
- Finland Proper: 17
- Satakunta: 9
- Tavastia: 14
- Pirkanmaa: 18
- Kymi: 12
- Southern Savonia: 6
- Northern Savonia: 10
- North Karelia: 7
- Vaasa: 17
- Central Finland: 10
- Oulu: 18
- Lapland: 7
- Åland: 1
Candidates and voting
Candidates for the parliamentary election were allowed to be set by political partiesPolitical party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
and electoral associations. Any Finnish citizen over the age of 18 was eligible for candidacy, apart from incapacitated
Capacity (law)
The capacity of both natural and legal persons determines whether they may make binding amendments to their rights, duties and obligations, such as getting married or merging, entering into contracts, making gifts, or writing a valid will...
persons and professional soldier
Soldier
A soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
s. Each party or electoral union was allowed to set a maximum of 14 candidates per electoral district, or, in the case the district elected more than 14 members of parliament, an amount equal to that of the representatives elected.
Each Finnish citizen aged 18 or over on the election day had the right to vote in the election, no matter where they lived. The electorate consisted of a total of 4,220,951 people, 4,015,552 of whom were resident in Finland and 205,399 abroad.
Election results
| Turnout | 66.7% | +1.4 |
| Turnout (in Finland) |
69.7% | +1.4 |
| Voters | 2,815,700 | +105,605 |
| Disqualified votes | 23,943 | −4,861 |
| party | votes | MPs | seats/ votes & swing |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| amount | proportion | |||||||||
| 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... |
689,391 | +88,799 | 24.69% | +2.3 | 55 | +7 | 1.110,04 | |||
| 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... |
683,223 | +70,260 | 24.47% | +1.6 | 53 | +2 | 1.080,04 | |||
| 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... |
517,904 | −45,931 | 18.55% | −2.5 | 40 | –6 | 1.080,01 | |||
| 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.... |
277,152 | −14,523 | 9.93% | −1.0 | 19 | –1 | 0.960,04 | |||
| Green League Green League The Green League is a centrist green liberal political party in Finland. It has ten seats in the Finnish Parliament and two in the European Parliament. The current chairperson is Ville Niinistö.... |
223,564 | +28,718 | 8.01% | +0.7 | 14 | +3 | 0.870,11 | |||
| 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... |
148,987 | +37,152 | 5.34% | +1.2 | 7 | –3 | 0.660,54 | |||
| Swedish People's Party | 128,824 | −8,506 | 4.61% | −0.5 | 8 | –3 | 0.870,20 | |||
| 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... |
43,816 | +17,376 | 1.57% | +0.6 | 3 | +2 | 0.960,45 | |||
| Communist Party of Finland | 21,079 | +637 | 0.76% | −0.0 | ||||||
| Forces for Change in Finland Forces for Change in Finland The Forces for Change in Finland was a Finnish election cartel formed for the 2003 parliamentary election... |
11,485 | – | 0.41% | – | ||||||
| Liberals Liberals (Finland) Liberals is a free market liberal party in Finland. Founded in 1965 as a reunification of the People's Party of Finland and Liberal League. Originally named Liberal People's Party , it restyled its name as Liberals in 2000.... |
8,776 | +3,582 | 0.31% | +0.1 | ||||||
| Kirjava "puolue" – Elonkehän puolesta | 6,659 | −3,719 | 0.24% | −0.2 | ||||||
| Pensioners for People | 5,346 | −105 | 0.19% | −0.0 | ||||||
| Finnish People's Blue-whites Finnish People's Blue-whites The Finnish People's Blue-whites was a Finnish political party with a far-right nationalist agenda, led by the controversial political figure Olavi Mäenpää. It was founded in 1993 as Independent People's Front , and was known as National Front from 1997 until 2001... |
4,579 | – | 0.16% | – | ||||||
| For Peace and Socialism – Communist Workers' Party | 2,908 | −547 | 0.10% | −0.0 | ||||||
| Finland Rises – People Unites | 2,640 | – | 0.09% | – | ||||||
| For the Poor For the Poor For the Poor is a Finnish political party, not situated anywhere on the traditional political map. It was founded in November 2002... |
1,448 | – | 0.05% | – | ||||||
| Joint Responsibility Party | 404 | – | 0.01% | – | ||||||
| Others | 13 572 | 0,49% | 1a | |||||||
| a FS Freeminded Co-operation The Moderates of Åland is a liberal conservative political party in the Åland Islands. At the 2003 elections, the party won 13.6% of popular votes and 4 out of 30 seats. The current party leader is Johan Ehn... – obundna (4 306 votes, Åland electoral district) |
||||||||||
| Source: Tilastokeskus | ||||||||||
| Party | Votes | swing | % of votes | swing | MPs | swing | % of MPs | MPs %/votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 2 791 757 | 110 466 | 100 | 0% | 200 | 0 | 100 | 1,00 | |
| 3 biggest | 1 890 518 | 113 128 | 67,7 | 1,4% | 148 | 3 | 74 | 1,09 | |
| The cabinet | 1 620 675 | 1 300 | 58,1 | 2,4% | 121 | 8 | 60,5 | 1,04 | |
| The opposition | 1 171 082 | 109 166 | 41,9 | 2,4% | 79 | 8 | 39,5 | 0,94 | |
Analysis
The Centre Party was a clear winner, as it gained the most new seats and became the largest party. This is credited mainly to Jäätteenmäki's powerful leadership and modernization of the party still often viewed as agrarian and conservative by many. However, the leading party of the former government, Social Democrats, also actually won some seats and increased its share of the vote, losing in the amount of total popular votes only by few thousands. This was especially interesting when compared to the results of previous elections in 1999, where SDP had managed to stay as the largest party, even though it lost 12 seats that time, while Centre gained a few. In 1999, SDP led by Paavo LipponenPaavo Lipponen
Paavo Tapio Lipponen is a Finnish politician and former reporter. He was Prime Minister of Finland from 1995 to 2003, and Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Finland from 1993 to 2005...
had formed the government, but in 2003 Lipponen had to step aside when Centre Party began the negotiations for new government. This is thought to have caused embitterment within SDP, particularly Lipponen and his supporters.
Apart from two main parties, the results weren't particularly ground-breaking. The National Coalition suffered a defeat, though not a huge one. Nonetheless it considered the results as a clear disapproval. The Green League achieved its best results ever, but the Swedish People's Party lost significantly. The Christian Democrats were a peculiar case this time, as they gained more votes but at the same time lost seats. This was partly because in 1999 and before Christian Democrats had been in an election coalition with Centre Party and benefited from this, while the Centre had actually lost seats due to this arrangement, and thus discontinued it starting from 2003 (the Finnish adaptation of d'Hondt method allows pre-election coalitions or cartels between two or more parties). The Left Alliance continued its slow decline, while the small populist faction, True Finns, did not do as well as some had expected.
Council of State
The Council of StateFinnish Council of State
The Cabinet of Finland is the body that directs the Government of Finland. However, in governmental translations to English, the distinction is often blurred between cabinet and government in the wider sense...
, or the Finnish cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
, was formed after the parliamentary election by the Centre Party, with its leader Anneli Jäätteenmäki
Anneli Jäätteenmäki
Anneli Tuulikki Jäätteenmäki, Master of Laws was the first female Prime Minister of Finland, in office from 17 April 2003 to 24 June 2003....
as Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Finland
The Prime Minister is the Head of Government of Finland. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President, who is the Head of State. The current Prime Minister is Jyrki Katainen of the National Coalition Party.-Overview:...
. A coalition government
Coalition government
A coalition government is a cabinet of a parliamentary government in which several political parties cooperate. The usual reason given for this arrangement is that no party on its own can achieve a majority in the parliament...
was formed, composing of the two largest parties of the Eduskunta, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Centre Party, and a minor coalition partner, the Swedish People's Party, who has a history of being a partner in government since 1976. The new cabinet had eight ministers from both the SDP and the Centre Party, and two ministers from the Swedish People's Party.
However, this proved to be one of the shortest-lived cabinets in Finnish history, lasting only 69 days, after the "Iraq-gate" scandal led to the government falling on 24 June 2003. A new cabinet was formed by the Centre Party's Matti Vanhanen
Matti Vanhanen
Matti Taneli Vanhanen is a Finnish politician. He is a former Prime Minister of Finland and a former Chairman of the Centre Party. In the second half of 2006 he was President of the European Council. In his earlier career he was a journalist...
, with largely the same composition as the previous cabinet.
External links
- Parliamentary Elections at the Finnish Ministry of Justice's website.