2003 Finnish parliamentary election

none April 2023 Finland state parliamentary 1999 Finnish parliamentary election 1999 2007 Finnish parliamentary election 2007 All 200 seats in Parliament 101 16 March 2003 130x130px MEP Anneli JAATTEENMAKI at the European Parliament in Strasbourg (cropped).jpg 120 120 160 0 0 Anneli Jäätteenmäki Centre Party (Finland) 689,391 48 seats, 22.4% 24.7% 2.3pp 55 7 Paavo Lipponen 2004.jpg 140 120 160 10 10 Paavo Lipponen Social Democratic Party of Finland 51 seats, 22.9% 53 2 683,223 24.5% 1.6pp Ville Itälä 2003.jpg 120 120 160 0 0 Ville Itälä National Coalition Party 46 seats, 21.0% 40 6 517,904 18.6% 2.4pp Suvi-Anne Siimes.jpg 140 120 160 0 10 Suvi-Anne Siimes Left Alliance (Finland) 20 seats, 10.9% 19 1 277,152 9.9% 1.0pp Osmo Soininvaara (cropped).jpg 120 120 160 0 0 Osmo Soininvaara Green League 11 seats, 7.3% 14 3 223,564 8.0% 0.7pp Bjarne Kallis 2011 cropped.jpg 130 120 160 0 0 Bjarne Kallis Christian Democrats (Finland) 10 seats, 5.34% 7 3 148,987 5.3% 1.1pp Jan-Erik Enestam, Finlands miljo- och samarbetsminister.jpg 120 120 160 0 0 Jan-Erik Enestam Swedish People's Party 11 seats, 5.1% 8 3 128,824 4.6% 0.5pp Timo Soini A4.jpeg 120 120 160 0 0 Timo Soini True Finns 1 seat, 1.0% 3 2 43,816 1.6% 0.6pp 2003_Finland_parliamentary_election.svg 450px Prime Minister Prime Minister after election Paavo Lipponen Social Democratic Party of Finland Anneli Jäätteenmäki Centre Party (Finland) 66.7% right|400px|thumb|Results by region Centre Party (Finland) Centre Party Social Democratic Party of Finland Social Democratic Party National Coalition Party National Coalition Party Swedish People's Party of Finland Swedish People's Party Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 16 March 2003.Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p606 978-3-8329-5609-7 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. 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 File:2003 Eduskunta.svg Centre Party 689391 55 +7 Social Democratic Party 683223 53 +2 National Coalition Party 517904 40 –6 Left Alliance 277152 19 –1 Green League 223564 14 +3 Christian Democrats 148987 7 –3 Swedish People's Party 128824 8 –3 Finns Party 43816 3 +2 Communist Party 21079 0 0 Forces for Change in Finland 11485 0 New Liberals 8776 0 0 Kirjava ”Puolue” – Elonkehän Puolesta 6659 0 0 Pensioners for People 5346 0 0 Senior Citizens' Party of Finland Finnish People's Blue-Whites 4579 0 New Freeminded Cooperation–Non-aligned Coalition 4306 1 +1 Liberals for Åland 3323 0 –1 Communist Workers' Party – For Peace and Socialism 2908 0 0 Åland Social Democrats 2904 0 0 Finland Rises – People Unites 2640 0 New Fatherland (party) For the Poor 1448 0 New Åland Centre 1118 0 0 Joint Responsibility Party 404 0 New Others 1921 0 – 23943 0 4220951 Tilastokeskushttps://archive.today/20120526024536/http://pxweb2.stat.fi/sahkoiset_julkaisut/vuosikirja2004_suppea/excel/vaali_02.xls Eduskuntavaalit 1927–2003 Tilastokeskus 2004 ASUB By region ProvinceCentreSocial DemocraticNational CoalitionLeft AllianceGreen LeagueChristian LeagueSwedish People'sTrue FinnsCommunistElectorateVotesValidInvalidSouth Savo34,20527,03011,2832,2823,4104,8100472417130,10385,07784,520780North Savo49,30126,90615,42515,4297,39912,09308511,106197,514129,585129,081906North Karelia33,02630,6398,4984,3265,7673,7980635837132,48488,22587,824666Kainuu22,7565,2173,20110,1421,0631,7314122229168,44545,09344,958313Uusimaa81,039181,363176,71261,089103,52325,94454,26222,2774,0211,005,079725,654725,6576,514Eastern Uusimaa6,03712,4596,0412,8023,2851,19814,97732815968,35048,49148,304455Southwest Finland43,55261,36764,82326,51521,2509,59713,0818451,615351,346248,253248,3691,995Kanta-Häme17,29530,03518,4667,7165,1657,4290313796129,35789,57588,830986Päijät-Häme17,46430,25422,6719,0446,25110,9960605749154,705100,639100,0241,022Kymenlaakso22,24533,39820,8629,7884,9074,8880320650147,18698,66997,9821,061South Karelia21,88226,16914,0502,1662,8604,5500393485108,19273,80773,351720Central Finland48,53235,48019,73013,1999,02710,27805101,678206,066139,519139,0241,158Southern Ostrobothnia56,64914,85717,6143,3832,5515,8482047,890164150,030110,304110,189581Ostrobothnia9,34817,6708,9875,5972,5748,54242,8891,491275132,20897,50897,794734Satakunta36,23838,36921,66219,3304,4925,90801,926280186,492129,822129,0871,166Pirkanmaa40,95763,38256,44330,97924,05014,99101,2205,430355,780248,165247,2291,968Central Ostrobothnia17,5896,5121,8821,8368244,9412,8371,85821653,32238,68338,656306Northern Ostrobothnia85,58027,38419,14825,46213,01410,6013121,4961,571274,057187,443187,2971,377Lapland45,69614,73210,40626,0672,152844221164339145,397101,369101,930936Åland00000000019,43911,71511,651299 Source: European Election Database https://web.archive.org/web/20210624200112/http://eed.nsd.uib.no/webview/index.jsp?study=http%3A%2F%2F129.177.90.166%3A80%2Fobj%2FfStudy%2FFIREF1994_Display&node=0&mode=cube&v=2&cube=http%3A%2F%2F129.177.90.166%3A80%2Fobj%2FfCube%2FFIREF1994_Display_C1&top=yes 24 June 2021 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 10.1080/01402380312331280628 153576048 References External links Parliamentary Elections at the Finnish Ministry of Justice's website. (Web Archive) Category:Parliamentary elections in Finland Parliament Finland