Parliamentary election in Finland 1917

← 1916General election 19171919 →

Result (in%)

 %

50

40

30th

20th

10

0

44.8

30.2

12.4

10.9

1.6

0.1

SDP

SP ^b

ML

RKP

KTL

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 1916

 % p

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

-2.5

± 0.0

+3.4

-0.9

-0.2

+0.2

SDP

SP ^b

ML

RKP

KTL

Otherwise.

Remarks:

^b The SP ran for elections in an alliance with the NSP and the People's Party .

Distribution of seats

      

A total of 200 seats

• SDP : 92
• Otherwise: 5
• NSP : 24
• RKP : 21
• ML : 26
• SP : 32

The parliamentary elections in Finland in 1917 ( Finnish Eduskuntavaalit 1917 ; Swedish Riksdagsvalet 1917 ) took place on October 1st and 2nd, 1917. It was the election to the 8th Finnish Parliament .

The Russian Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky had previously arranged for the Finnish Parliament to be dissolved in order to hold new elections. It was the last parliamentary elections under Russian rule. 200 MPs were elected.

Participating parties

7 different parties stood for election:

Political party		Alignment	Top candidate
	Social Democratic Party of Finland Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue (SDP) Finlands Socialdemokratiska Parti	social democratic	Kullervo Manner
	Finnish party Suomalainen Puolue (SP) Finska partiet	conservative - fennoman
	Young Finnish Party Nuorsuomalainen Puolue (NSP) Ungfinska partiet	national - liberal
	Swedish People's Party Ruotsalainen Kansanpuolue (RKP) Svenska Folkpartiet (SFP)	liberal	Eric from Rettig
	Landbund Maalaisliitto (ML) Agrarförbundet	agrarian	Santeri Alkio
	Christian Workers' Union of Finland Suomen Kristillisen Työvänen Liitto (KTL) Finlands kristliga arbetarförbund	Christian - social democratic
	Kansanpuolue People's Party	agrarian

Election result

The turnout was 69.2 percent, 13.7 percentage points higher than the turnout in the last parliamentary election in 1916.

The Social Democrats were able to increase their absolute number of votes as in 1916, but due to the significantly higher voter turnout, the relative share of votes fell by 2.5 percentage points, which means that the Social Democrats lost their sole majority in the Finnish Parliament. The Finnish Party, the Young Finnish Party and the People's Party, which took part in parliamentary elections for the first and last time, formed an electoral alliance in all constituencies except Lapland.

The big winner of the election was the Landbund, which gained seven seats and became stronger than the Swedish People's Party for the first time. The Christian Labor Union lost its only seat.

Result of the parliamentary election in Finland in 1917

Political party		be right			Seats
		number	%	+/-	number	+/-
	Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP)	444,670	44.79	−2.50	92	−11
	Finnish Party (SP)	299,516	30.17	-	32	−1
	Young Finnish Party (NSP)				24	+1
	People's Party				5	+5
	Land Federation (ML)	122,900	12.38	+3.38	26th	+7
	Swedish People's Party (RKP)	108 190	10.90	−0.86	21st	-
	Christian Labor Federation of Finland (KTL)	15,489	1.56	−0.28	-	−1
	Others	1.997	0.20	+0.09	-	-
total		992.762	100.00		200
Valid votes		992.762	99.51
Invalid votes		4,903	0.49
voter turnout		997.665	69.23
Eligible voters		1,441,075	100.00
Source:

After the election

See also : Finnish Declaration of Independence

Pehr Evind Svinhufvud of the Young Finland Party became the first Prime Minister of independent Finland. He led a center-right coalition made up of the Young Finnish Party, the Swedish People's Party, the Finnish Party and the Landbund. The Social Democrats declared the new election illegitimate, but did not boycott parliament. On December 4, 1917, the Svinhufvud government proposed independence to parliament. The proposal was accepted by the state parliament on December 6th. The Bolshevik government in Russia finally confirmed independence. After Svinhufvud was elected head of state by the conservative, so-called “white” forces in May 1918 against the backdrop of the Finnish civil war that had broken out in January, Juho Kusti Paasikivi succeeded him as prime minister. After half a year, Lauri Ingman replaced the Paasikivi government with a coalition of the Collection Party, the Swedish People's Party and the Progress Party. At that time, their 77 seats in parliament were enough for a majority, as the Social Democrats stayed away from parliament after the Finnish civil war.

• 1.) Svinhufvud I cabinet - Pehr Evind Svinhufvud (NSP) - Government: NSP, RKP, SP, ML ( November 27, 1917 to May 27, 1918 )

• 2.) Paasikivi I cabinet - Juho Kusti Paasikivi (SP) - Government: NSP, RKP, SP, ML ( May 27, 1918 to November 27, 1918 )

• 3.) Ingman I cabinet - Lauri Ingman (Kok) - Government: Kok, RKP, Ed ( November 27, 1918 to April 17, 1919 )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Official result of the 1917 general election yle.fi (Finnish)
2. ↑ Eduskuntavaalit 1907–2003 ( Memento of January 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), vaalit.fi, PDF file (Finnish)
3. ↑ Eduskuntavaalit vuonna 1917 doria.fi , PDF file (Finnish)