4.4.2 Finland: The 1995 general elections
Description
This article is from the Nordic countries FAQ, by Antti Lahelma and Johan Olofsson, with numerous contributions by others.
4.4.2 Finland: The 1995 general elections
The Finnish parliament is unicameral, elected by citizens over
18 every fourth March (to commemorate the opening of the
Estates' Diet by Tsar Alexander I in March 1809). The
President, with the consent of the Prime Minister, can dissolve
the Parliament and call for new elections. This last occurred
in 1975. In the election of March 1995 the 200 seats went as
follows:
Party % of votes Seats (change from -91) Social Democrats 28.3 63 (+15) Centre Party 19.9 44 (-11) National Coalition (cons.) 17.9 39 (-1) Left-wing Alliance (comm.) 11.2 22 (+3) Greens 6.5 9 (-1) Swedish People's Party 5.1 11 (0) Christian League 3.0 7 (-1) Young Finns 2.8 2 (+2) Rural Party 1.3 1 (-6) Ecological Party 0.3 1 (+1) Åland representative 1
Voting percentage: 71.8
Of the new MP's 143 are men and 67 women. The parliament
elected in 1991 had 77 women out of the total 200 MP's (a world
record in its time), and as many women's organizations had set
the goal as 101 women MP's to be elected, the result was
clearly a disappointment and one of the most surprising
elements of the elections.
The Social Democrats got a great victory as a result of their
being in the opposition in the last government. Centre party,
the leading party of the previous government, was the greatest
loser of the elections, probably because the party's split-up
in the question of EU-membership. The National Coalition, the
other major party in the government, was among the losers but
was much less affected by government responsibility than the
Centre. The gallups lied to the Greens once again and for the
first time since its formation the party stopped growing. Young
Finns got their first seats, not as many as they expected but
it's a start. The Rural Party was one of the biggest losers of
the elections; a once significant populist party, it has waned
away almost completely and may soon disappear entirely from the
Finnish political chart as it is currently in deep economical
problems. The little known Ecological Party got its sole seat
because of its candidate Pertti "Veltto" ("Slack") Virtanen, a
well-known eccentric rock musician and psychologist, who was
also a candidate in the presidential elections (and did
surprisingly well).
As Mrs. Speaker of the Parliament Riitta Uosukainen (Cons.)
continued.
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