2003 Finnish parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 16 March 2003.[1] The Centre Party led by Anneli Jäätteenmäki overtook the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to become the largest party in the Eduskunta. This was credited mainly to Jäätteenmäki's powerful leadership and modernization of the party still often viewed as agrarian and conservative by many. However, the SDP actually won some seats and increased its share of the vote, losing in the number of total popular votes only by a few thousand.

2003 Finnish parliamentary election
16 March 2003
All 200 seats to the Parliament
101 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout66.7%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Anneli Jäätteenmäki Paavo Lipponen Ville Itälä
Party Centre Social Democratic National Coalition
Leader since 2000 1993 2001
Last election 48 seats, 22.4% 51 seats, 22.9% 46 seats, 21.0%
Seats won 55 53 40
Seat change 7 2 6
Popular vote 689,391 683,223 517,904
Percentage 24.7% 24.5% 18.6%
Swing 2.3pp 1.6pp 2.4pp
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Suvi-Anne Siimes Osmo Soininvaara Bjarne Kallis
Party Left Alliance Green League Christian Democrat
Leader since 1998 2001 2001
Last election 20 seats, 10.9% 11 seats, 7.3% 7 seats, 5.34%
Seats won 19 14 7
Seat change 1 3 3
Popular vote 277,152 223,564 148,987
Percentage 9.9% 8.0% 5.3%
Swing 1.0pp 0.7pp 1.1pp
  Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party
 
Leader Jan-Erik Enestam Timo Soini Yrjö Hakanen
Party Swedish People's Finns Communist Party
Leader since 1998 1997 1990
Last election 11 seats, 5.1% 1 seat, 1.0% 0 seats, 0.8%
Seats won 8 3 0
Seat change 3 2 0
Popular vote 128,824 43,816 21,079
Percentage 4.6% 1.6% 0.8%
Swing 0.5pp 0.6pp 0.0pp
Prime Minister before election

Paavo Lipponen
Social Democratic

 Prime Minister

Anneli Jäätteenmäki
Centre

Republic of Finland
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Finland
Results by province

The Green League achieved its best results ever, but the Swedish People's Party suffered losses. The Christian Democrats gained votes but 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 Party had lost seats due to the arrangement, and thus discontinued it starting from 2003. The Left Alliance continued its slow decline, while the small populist Finns Party did not do as well as some had expected.

Electoral system

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.

The country was divided into fifteen electoral districts, with the boundaries corresponding to those of administrative regions (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 elected a number of representatives to the Eduskunta based on its population. The autonomous region of Åland had a special status with one representative even if its population was not large enough.

Candidates for the parliamentary election were allowed to be set by political parties and electoral associations. Any Finnish citizen over the age of 18 was eligible for candidacy, apart from incapacitated persons and professional soldiers. 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.

Results
Party Votes % Seats +/–
Centre Party689,39124.755+7
Social Democratic Party683,22324.553+2
National Coalition Party517,90418.640–6
Left Alliance277,1529.919–1
Green League223,5648.014+3
Christian Democrats148,9875.37–3
Swedish People's Party128,8244.68–3
Finns Party43,8161.63+2
Communist Party of Finland21,0790.800
Forces for Change in Finland11,4850.40New
Liberals8,7760.300
Kirjava ”Puolue” – Elonkehän Puolesta6,6590.200
Pensioners for People5,3460.200
Finnish People's Blue-Whites4,5790.20New
Åland Coalition4,3060.210
Communist Workers' Party – For Peace and Socialism2,9080.100
Finland Rises – People Unites2,6400.10New
For the Poor1,4480.10New
Joint Responsibility Party4040.00New
Others9,2660.30–
Invalid/blank votes23,943–––
Total2,815,7001002000
Registered voters/turnout4,220,95166.7––
Source: Tilastokeskus[2]
Popular vote
KESK
 
 24.69%
SDP
 
 24.47%
KOK
 
 18.55%
VAS
 
 9.93%
VIHR
 
 8.01%
SKL
 
 5.34%
RKP
 
 4.61%
PS
 
 1.57%
Others
 
 2.83%
Parliament seats
KESK
 
 27.50%
SDP
 
 26.50%
KOK
 
 20.00%
VAS
 
 9.50%
VIHR
 
 7.00%
RKP
 
 4.00%
SKL
 
 3.50%
PS
 
 1.50%
Others
 
 0.50%

By province
Province Centre Party Social Democratic Party National Coalition Party Left Alliance Green League Christian League Swedish People's Party True Finns Communist Electorate Votes Valid votes Invalid votes
Southern Savonia34,20527,03011,2832,2823,4104,8100472417130,10385,07784,520780
Northern Savonia49,30126,90615,42515,4297,39912,09308511,106197,514129,585129,081906
North Karelia33,02630,6398,4984,3265,7673,7980635837132,48488,22587,824666
Kainuu22,7565,2173,20110,1421,0631,7314122229168,44545,09344,958313
Uusimaa81,039181,363176,71261,089103,52325,94454,26222,2774,0211,005,079725,654725,6576,514
Eastern Uusimaa6,03712,4596,0412,8023,2851,19814,97732815968,35048,49148,304455
Southwest Finland43,55261,36764,82326,51521,2509,59713,0818451,615351,346248,253248,3691,995
Tavastia Proper17,29530,03518,4667,7165,1657,4290313796129,35789,57588,830986
Päijänne Tavastia17,46430,25422,6719,0446,25110,9960605749154,705100,639100,0241,022
Kymenlaakso22,24533,39820,8629,7884,9074,8880320650147,18698,66997,9821,061
South Karelia21,88226,16914,0502,1662,8604,5500393485108,19273,80773,351720
Central Finland48,53235,48019,73013,1999,02710,27805101,678206,066139,519139,0241,158
Southern Ostrobothnia56,64914,85717,6143,3832,5515,8482047,890164150,030110,304110,189581
Ostrobothnia9,34817,6708,9875,5972,5748,54242,8891,491275132,20897,50897,794734
Satakunta36,23838,36921,66219,3304,4925,90801,926280186,492129,822129,0871,166
Pirkanmaa40,95763,38256,44330,97924,05014,99101,2205,430355,780248,165247,2291,968
Central Ostrobothnia17,5896,5121,8821,8368244,9412,8371,85821653,32238,68338,656306
Northern Ostrobothnia85,58027,38419,14825,46213,01410,6013121,4961,571274,057187,443187,2971,377
Lapland45,69614,73210,40626,0672,152844221164339145,397101,369101,930936
Åland Islands00000000019,43911,71511,651299
Source: European Election Database

Aftermath

The Council of State, 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 leak 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.

Further reading
  • Arter, David (July 2003). "From the 'rainbow coalition' back down to 'red earth'? the 2003 finnish general election". West European Politics. 26 (3): 153–162. doi:10.1080/01402380312331280628.

References
  1. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p606 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. Eduskuntavaalit 1927–2003 Tilastokeskus 2004
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