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1999 Finnish parliamentary election

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1999 Finnish parliamentary election

← 1995 21 March 1999 2003 →

All 200 seats in Parliament
101 seats needed for a majority
Turnout65.3%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Paavo Lipponen Esko Aho Sauli Niinistö
Party SDP Centre National Coalition
Last election 63 seats, 28.3% 44 seats, 19.9% 39 seats, 17.9%
Seats won 51 48 46
Seat change Decrease12 Increase4 Increase7
Popular vote 612,963 600,592 563,835
Percentage 22.9% 22.4% 21.0%
Swing Decrease5.4pp Increase2.6pp Increase3.1pp

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Suvi-Anne Siimes Satu Hassi Jan-Erik Enestam
Party Left Alliance Green RKP
Last election 22 seats, 11.2% 9 seats, 6.5% 11 seats, 5.1%
Seats won 20 11 11
Seat change Decrease2 Increase2 Steady0
Popular vote 291,675 194,846 137,330
Percentage 10.9% 7.3% 5.1%
Swing Decrease0.3pp Increase0.8pp Steady0.0pp

  Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party
 
Leader Bjarne Kallis Risto Kuisma Timo Soini
Party Christian League Reform Finns
Last election 7 seats, 3.0% New party 1 seat, 1.3% (SMP)
Seats won 10 1 1
Seat change Increase3 Increase1 Steady0
Popular vote 111,835 28,549 26,440
Percentage 4.2% 1.1% 1.0%
Swing Increase1.1pp Increase1.1pp Decrease0.3pp


Prime Minister before election

Paavo Lipponen
SDP

Prime Minister after election

Paavo Lipponen
SDP

Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 21 March 1999.[1] Despite suffering significant losses, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) remained the largest party of the Eduskunta and Paavo Lipponen remained Prime Minister.

Background

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Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen's five-party "rainbow government" consisting of the SDP, National Coalition Party, Left Alliance, Swedish People's Party and the Green League 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% and in 1999, it still stood at 10.2%. This was, as the governing parties pointed out, still a better record than the previous centre-right government's performance; during its term between 1991 and 1995, the unemployment had risen from 6.6% to 15.4%.

Campaign

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The largest opposition party, the Centre Party, tried to become the largest party overall, and to re-join the government. They called for labour 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.[2][3]

Results

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PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Social Democratic Party612,96322.8651−12
Centre Party600,59222.4048+4
National Coalition Party563,83521.0346+7
Left Alliance291,67510.8820−2
Green League194,8467.2711+2
Swedish People's Party137,3305.12110
Finnish Christian League111,8354.1710+3
Reform Group28,5491.061New
Young Finns28,0841.050−2
Finns Party26,4400.991New
Communist Party20,4420.760New
Ecological Party the Greens10,3780.390−1
Alliance for Free Finland10,1040.3800
Liberals for Åland5,8700.2210
Pensioners for People5,4510.2000
Liberal People's Party5,1940.1900
Pensioners' Party4,4810.1700
Natural Law Party3,9030.1500
Åland CentreFreemindedNon-aligned3,6780.1400
Communist Workers' Party – For Peace and Socialism3,4550.1300
Åland Social Democrats9240.0300
Others11,2620.420
Total2,681,291100.002000
Valid votes2,681,29198.94
Invalid/blank votes28,8041.06
Total votes2,710,095100.00
Registered voters/turnout4,152,43065.27
Source: Tilastokeskus,[4] ASUB

By electoral district

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Electoral district Total
seats
Seats won
SDP Kesk Kok Vas Vihr RKP SKL Rem PS L
Åland 1 1
Central Finland 10 3 4 1 1 1
Häme 13 4 2 4 1 1 1
Helsinki 20 5 1 7 1 4 2
Kymi 13 5 3 3 1 1
Lapland 8 1 4 1 2
North Karelia 7 4 2 1
North Savo 10 2 4 2 1 1
Oulu 18 2 9 2 3 1 1
Pirkanmaa 16 4 2 5 3 1 1
Satakunta 10 3 2 2 2 1
South Savo 8 3 3 2
Uusima 32 8 3 9 3 3 4 1 1
Vaasa 17 3 6 2 4 1 1
Varsinais-Suomi 17 4 3 5 2 1 1 1
Total 200 51 48 46 20 11 11 10 1 1 1
Source: Statistics Finland[5]

By province

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Province Social Democratic Centre National Coalition Left Alliance Green League Swedish People's Christian League Reform Group Young Finns True Finns Communist Electorate Votes Valid Invalid
Southern Savonia 26,029 30,231 14,778 2,284 4,195 0 5,137 538 0 578 168 132,335 85,641 84,803 1,019
Northern Savonia 24,889 45,226 20,323 17,731 5,861 0 5,749 571 747 3,467 1,140 198,391 127,436 126,611 1,143
Northern Karelia 32,467 26,726 9,923 4,457 3,724 0 5,579 308 2,162 1,392 688 133,389 88,825 88,243 790
Kainuu 4,010 20,593 4,515 12,150 1,192 0 919 450 201 332 583 70,684 46,600 46,201 532
Uusimaa 150,585 55,513 183,700 58,354 91,819 60,281 17,903 12,342 15,909 1,258 3,831 962,873 666,338 663,813 7,536
Eastern Uusimaa 10,879 4,888 6,589 2,337 2,748 13,855 871 1,672 335 138 223 66,336 45,479 45,170 527
Southwest Finland 54,988 39,616 63,753 27,939 18,178 11,881 5,421 1,010 1,808 587 1,640 344,072 236,766 235,203 2,465
Tavastia Proper 24,866 16,310 20,803 6,770 5,808 0 8,514 556 487 162 571 127,728 87,776 86,783 1,184
Päijänne Tavastia 26,374 15,569 27,481 9,400 5,933 36 6,923 1,027 313 679 591 153,108 97,463 96,656 1,134
Kymenlaakso 34,448 19,219 24,931 8,311 5,456 0 5,049 584 0 178 657 149,271 99,978 99,412 1,068
South Karelia 22,172 19,433 17,415 2,469 3,751 0 4,175 403 0 465 572 108,576 71,958 71,337 849
Central Finland 33,744 41,459 20,223 16,816 7,116 247 10,875 849 1,768 300 1,082 202,050 136,420 135,455 1,461
Southern Ostrobothnia 15,041 52,128 21,711 3,821 1,944 192 4,063 574 0 8,402 272 150,517 110,174 109,683 807
Ostrobothnia 15,051 9,741 8,809 6,230 2,369 47,334 4,694 241 0 1,371 334 131,979 96,952 96,955 781
Satakunta 36,722 30,587 27,943 20,415 4,044 10 6,084 823 3 852 478 188,315 130,669 129,518 1,476
Pirkanmaa 55,569 36,278 56,918 36,800 16,123 0 10,817 2,073 3,117 1,385 2,927 343,944 236,491 234,823 2,487
Central Ostrobothnia 6,090 16,032 3,288 1,822 744 3,208 4,628 839 0 1,701 144 53,399 39,080 38,906 376
Northern Ostrobothnia 25,164 76,611 20,376 25,476 11,994 0 3,119 3,053 1,234 2,635 4,136 263,201 178,469 177,498 1,898
Lapland 13,875 44,432 10,356 28,093 1,847 286 1,315 636 0 558 405 148,965 103,754 103,749 1,122
Åland 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 19,132 10,465 10,472 149
Source: European Election Database Archived 2021-06-24 at the Wayback Machine

References

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  1. ^ Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p606 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ^ Hannakatri Hollmén et al (2000) What Where When 2000 - The Citizen's Yearbook, Otava, pp208–211, 240–241
  3. ^ Jukka Hartikainen et al (2002) What Where When 2003 - The Citizen's Yearbook, Otava, pp15–116
  4. ^ Eduskuntavaalit 1927–2003 Tilastokeskus 2004
  5. ^ Vaalit 1999:1 - Eduskuntavaalit 1999. Statistics Finland. 1999.