The was held on Sunday, 16 March 2003 , with the aim of determining the composition of the Finnish Parliament , or '' Eduskunta '', for the parliamentary period between 2003 and 2007. The largest winner of this election was the Centre Party (''Keskusta'') led by Anneli Jäätteenmäki , who passed the Social Democratic Party Of Finland (SDP) to become the largest party in the ''Eduskunta''.
The election was held under the D'Hondt Method of Party-list Proportional Representation , where the Electorate 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 Next Parliamentary Election will be held on Sunday, 18 March 2007 , when the members of the ''Eduskunta'' will be elected for their next term, up to 2011. The election may also be held earlier by order of the President Of Finland . However, this can only be done at the request of the Prime Minister and after consultation with the parliamentary groups, and is highly unlikely.
For the purposes of parliamentary elections, Finland has been divided into fifteen Constituencies . The boundaries of these constituencies correspond 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 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).
The numbers of MPs per constituency (''see Parliamentary Constituencies Of Finland '') in the 2003 parliamentary elections were as follows:
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 Soldier s. Each party or electoral union was allowed to set a maximum of 14 candidates per constituency, or, in the case the constituency 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.
| |
Centre Party (Finland)
|
| |
55
|
| |
+7
|
| |
275
|
| |
247
|
| |
689,391
|
| |
+23%
|
|
| |
Social Democratic Party of Finland
|
| |
53
|
| |
+2
|
| |
265
|
| |
245
|
| |
683,223
|
| |
+16%
|
|
| |
National Coalition Party (Finland)
|
| |
40
|
| |
-6
|
| |
200
|
| |
186
|
| |
517,904
|
| |
-24%
|
|
| |
Left Alliance (Finland)
|
| |
19
|
| |
-1
|
| |
95
|
| |
99
|
| |
277,152
|
| |
-10%
|
|
| |
Green League
|
| |
14
|
| |
+3
|
| |
70
|
| |
80
|
| |
223,564
|
| |
+07%
|
|
| |
Swedish People's Party (Finland)
|
| |
8
|
| |
-3
|
| |
40
|
| |
46
|
| |
128,824
|
| |
-05%
|
|
| |
Christian Democrats (Finland)
|
| |
7
|
| |
-3
|
| |
35
|
| |
53
|
| |
148,987
|
| |
+11%
|
|
| |
True Finns
|
| |
3
|
| |
+2
|
| |
15
|
| |
16
|
| |
43,816
|
| |
+06%
|
|
| |
Communist Party of Finland
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
00
|
| |
08
|
| |
21,079
|
| |
00%
|
|
| |
Forces for Change in Finland
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
00
|
| |
04
|
| |
11,485
|
| |
+04%
|
|
| |
Liberals (Finland)
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
00
|
| |
03
|
| |
8,776
|
| |
+01%
|
|
| |
Kirjava "puolue"
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
00
|
| |
02
|
| |
6,659
|
| |
-02%
|
|
| |
Eläkeläiset Kansan Asialla
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
00
|
| |
02
|
| |
5,346
|
| |
00%
|
|
| |
Suomen Kansan Sinivalkoiset
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
00
|
| |
02
|
| |
4,579
|
| |
00%
|
|
| |
Communist Workers' Party (Finland)
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
00
|
| |
01
|
| |
2,908
|
| |
00%
|
|
| |
Suomi nousee - Kansa yhdistyy
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
00
|
| |
01
|
| |
2,640
|
| |
+01%
|
|
| |
Köyhien Asialla
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
00
|
| |
01
|
| |
1,448
|
| |
+01%
|
|
| |
Yhteisvastuu puolue
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
00
|
| |
00
|
| |
404
|
| |
00%
|
|
| |
other groups
|
| |
1
|
| |
0
|
| |
05
|
| |
05
|
| |
13,572
|
| |
-03%
|
|
|
