European elections in Finland 2009

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(in %)

 %

30th

20th

10

0

23.7

19th

17.5

12.4

9.8

6.1

5.9

4.2

2.0

COOK

KESK

SDP

VIHR

PS

RKP

VAS

KD

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 2004

 % p

 10

   8th

   6th

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

  -6

+0.5

-4.4

-3.7

+2.0

+8.9

+0.4

-3.2

-0.1

+0.1

COOK

KESK

SDP

VIHR

PS

RKP

VAS

KD

Otherwise.

The European elections in Finland 2009 took place on June 7, 2009. It was carried out in the course of the EU- wide European elections in 2009 , with 13 of the 736 seats in the European Parliament in Finland . In addition to the six parties represented in the European Parliament, seven other parties and an electoral association competed in the election.

Election process and turnout

A total of 4,326,246 Finnish citizens were eligible to vote. In addition, 6,211 people from other EU countries living in Finland had decided to vote for a Finnish party.

From May 27th to May 30th and June 1st to 2nd you could vote in advance at various centers in Finland. From May 27th to 30th, 2009 votes could also be cast at the Finnish diplomatic missions abroad. People whose physical condition did not allow them to visit a polling station could vote from home against an announcement by May 26th at the latest. The official election day took place on Sunday, June 7th, 2009. Polling stations across Finland were open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. that day.

The turnout including foreign voters was 38.6%, in Finland 40.3%. This means that voter turnout was 0.8% lower than in 2004. Participation was highest in Kauniainen with 68.4% , and lowest in Hyrynsalmi with 25.5%.

Electoral system

Thirteen parties and an electoral association were available for election. A total of 241 people ran for the thirteen Finnish seats in the European Parliament. Eleven of the parties put forward 20 candidates each, the two parties Finnish Christian Democrats and True Finns each 10 candidates. The electoral association put Liisa Sulkakoski as a single candidate.

Finland uses the open list system for elections , which determines the order of candidates not only by parties. The voters do not vote for a party themselves, but only for its candidates. The votes that all candidates of a party received together are used to determine the amount of seats that a party will receive. The D'Hondt method is used for this determination . Within a party, those candidates who have received the most votes become MPs. In this procedure, candidates who have received many votes but whose party does not have enough seats can lose to candidates with fewer votes but more free seats.

Election result

The winners of the European elections were the True Finns and the Green League . The True Finns won almost 10% of the vote and entered the European Parliament with one member for the first time. Your election campaign was mainly shaped by Euroscepticism and hostility to immigration. The Greens were able to win a second seat through an increase of around 2 percentage points. Most of your voters live in the big cities in southern Finland.

The three major parties in Finland, the National Collection Party , the Finnish Center Party and the Social Democratic Party of Finland , all three suffered more or less large losses. The National Collection Party was able to expand its lead over the other two parties and hardly lost any votes, but due to the lower turnout it lost one seat. The Center Party and the Social Democrats each lost one seat, but their loss of votes was also significantly greater. The Center Party lost over 4 percentage points of the vote.

The Christian Democrats had concluded an electoral alliance with the True Finns. Although they received almost 30,000 fewer votes than the left alliance , this electoral alliance helped them get a MP. The left alliance, however, lost its only seat and is no longer represented in the European Parliament. The Swedish People's Party was barely able to keep its only seat.

Result

Result of the European elections in Finland 2009

Political party		be right			Seats
		number	%	+/-	number	+/-
	National Collection Party (KOK)	386.416	23.2	-0.5	3	-1
	Finnish Center Party (KESK)	316,798	19.0	-4.3	3	-1
	Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP)	292.051	17.5	-3.6	2	-1
	Green Bund (VIHR)	206,439	12.4	+2.0	2	+1
	The Finns (PS)	162.930	9.8	+9.3	1	+1
	Swedish People's Party	101,453	6.1	+0.4	1	± 0
	Finnish Christian Democrats (KD)	69,458	4.2	-0.1	1	± 0
	Left Alliance (VAS)	98,690	5.9	-3.2	-	-1
	Liisa Sulkakoski (individual candidate)	8,463	-	+0.5	-	-
	Communist Party of Finland (SKP)	8,089	0.5	-0.1	-	-
	For the poor	4,338	0.3	-0.1	-	-
	Finnish Labor Party (STP)	3,169	0.2	+0.2	-	-
	Seniors Party of Finland (SSP)	2,974	0.2	± 0.0	-	-
	total	1,664,831	100.0		13	-1
Eligible voters
Turnout (domestic)		40.3%
Votes cast		1,672,434
Invalid votes		7,603
Source: Finnish Ministry of Justice

MPs

Eight women and five men were elected as members of the European Parliament. Their age at the time of the election ranges from 27 to 63. Six of the elected candidates are completely new to the European Parliament.

Surname	Political party	Number of votes
Ville Itälä	National rally party	65,916
Anneli Jäätteenmäki	Finnish Center Party	80.007
Mitro Repo	Social Democratic Party of Finland	71,517
Timo Soini	True Finns	130,432
Heidi Hautala	Green covenant	58,952
Sirpa Pietikäinen	National rally party	51,446
Hannu Takkula	Finnish Center Party	39,311
Liisa Jaakonsaari	Social Democratic Party of Finland	45,335
Eija-Riitta Korhola	National rally party	51.211
Sari essayah	Finnish Christian Democrats	53,688
Riikka Manner	Finnish Center Party	37,304
Satu Hassi	Green covenant	56,855
Carl Haglund	Swedish People's Party	16,853

Ari Vatanen and Jani Sievinen did not receive enough votes from the members of the last European Parliament to continue their office. Eeva-Riitta Siitonen decided not to run again.

The most successful candidate was Timo Soini with over 130,000 votes, which is around 80% of the total number of votes in his party.

The candidate Risto EJ Penttilä had the tenth best result of all candidates with 50,881, but only the fourth best of his National Collection Party, which could only win three seats. Four candidates from other parties with fewer votes were given preference.

Web links

• Finnish Ministry of Justice election website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Official result of the 2009 European elections
2. ↑ vaalit: People Entitled to vote
3. ^ Ministry of Justice: European Elections on June 7, 2009
4. ↑ vaalit: Party Results (Whole country)
5. ↑ vaalit: Participation
6. ^ Helsingin Sanomat : True Finns and Greens advance in European Parliament elections as big parties suffer