Elections in Finland
Elections in Finland take place at the national and local levels. Only the autonomous region of Åland Islands elects its own Landtag (Lagting) , the councils of the other Maakunta (Landscapes) are not elected by the people, but by delegates from the municipalities . An experiment in Kainuu to allow the council to vote directly ran from 2005 to 2012 and has now ended.
Paragraph 14 of the Constitution gives every Finn who is at least 18 years of age the right to participate in national elections and votes. Finns and EU citizens over the age of 18 are entitled to vote in the European Parliament, all other foreigners living permanently in Finland over the age of 18 also have the right to vote in local elections.
National elections
Elections for the President , the Finnish Parliament and the European Parliament take place at national level .
presidential election
Section 54 of the constitution states that the president is directly elected for six years. Only native Finns are eligible for election; only two consecutive terms are allowed. The right of nomination lies with parties that were elected to parliament with at least one member in the last election, or 20,000 eligible voters. In the first ballot, a candidate needs more than half of the votes. If no one receives an absolute majority in the first ballot, a second ballot will take place with the two best-placed candidates, which will be won by the applicant with the most votes. If there is only one candidate, he becomes president without being elected. The latter has not happened since the constitution was passed; a second ballot was always necessary.
In the first election in 1919 , the president was elected by parliament. This was laid down in the Finnish Constitution of 1919, which came into force shortly before, as a transitional arrangement. For the further elections a 300-member electoral college was elected by the people . That number was increased to 301 in 1981 for the 1982 election . In the electoral committee, an absolute majority was required in the first and second ballot; in the third ballot, which took place between the two best-placed second, a simple majority was sufficient. In 1988 a direct popular election took place for the first time, and an electoral body was also elected at the same time. If a candidate had received an absolute majority, he would have become president, since that did not happen, again decided the electors' committee with 301 members. The 1994 election took place for the first time according to the rule that is still in force today.
After the resignation of President Kyösti Kallio , elected in 1937 , there was no new election of the electoral body in 1940 due to Soviet pressure, but the electors elected in 1937 elected Risto Ryti for the remaining three years of Kallio's term of office. Since no popular election could take place in 1943 because of the Continuation War , the electoral body elected in 1937 was again authorized by a special law to elect a new president for two years. Ryti, who was re-elected, resigned in 1944. Since the war was ongoing, Parliament appointed Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim as his successor for a six-year term. Mannerheim resigned after the end of the war, in 1946 a successor was again elected by a special law for the remaining four years by the parliament elected in 1945.
In the following years, elections were held in 1950 , 1956 , 1962 and 1968 as stipulated by the constitution. In 1973 Parliament extended President Urho Kekkonen's term of office to ten years, so the next election did not take place until 1978 . Kekkonen, who was re-elected, resigned after a serious illness, so that the next election mentioned above took place as early as 1982.
In 1919, 1940, 1950 and from 1962 to 1982 the winner was determined after the first ballot. In 1925, 1931 and 1956 a third ballot was necessary. In 1937 Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg , who had been Finland's first president from 1919 to 1925, won exactly half of the electorate with 150 votes in the first ballot, but was clearly defeated by Kyösti Kallio in the second ballot. In 1988 two ballots were also required in the electoral committee, the direct election since 1994 has so far also required two ballots each.
General election
Paragraphs 24 and 25 of the constitution stipulate that parliament has 200 seats, which are elected every four years according to proportional representation. The country has been divided into 12 constituencies (12 to 18 are permitted) since 2015 , with the Åland Islands forming an additional constituency for one MP . There are thus a total of 13 constituencies, from 1962 to 2011 there were 15. In the mainland constituencies, 7 to 35 MPs are elected in proportion to the number of Finnish citizens. The borders of the constituencies are largely based on the old provinces and therefore only partially correspond to the borders of the landscapes .
The first democratic election took place in 1907 (Electoral Law 1906) in the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland . For the first time in Europe women had the right to vote and stand for election , and for the first time worldwide 19 women were actually elected to a parliament. The voting age was 24 years. As early as 1907, 200 MPs were elected in multi-person constituencies using proportional representation. Only Lapland elected only one MP until 1937, since 1948 Åland has been a separate constituency with only one MP. In the other constituencies, 6 to 35 seats are available. From 1907 to 1937 there were 16 constituencies. In 1939, North and Southoulu were combined into one constituency . Due to the loss of a large part of Karelia in the Winter War or Continuation War , the remnants of the two constituencies concerned were merged into one in 1948, with the simultaneous separation of Åland it remained at 15 constituencies. The formation of a separate constituency for Helsinki in 1954 increased the number to 16, the amalgamation of the two constituencies in Vaasa in 1962 resulted in 15 constituencies again. Since the merger of North Savo and North Karelia as well as South Savo and Kymi into one constituency each in 2015, the number of constituencies has remained at the constitutional minimum of 13.
There is no official threshold clause in Finland like the German five percent hurdle or the Austrian four percent hurdle , but the fact that the country is divided into constituencies means there are different factual hurdles. In the constituency of Uusimaa , where there are 35 seats to choose from, a party needs about 2.8% of the vote to get a seat, in the constituency of Lapland with only seven seats it needs about 12.5%. As only one MP is elected in Åland constituency , one party needs more votes than the other to win that seat.
European elections
Finland has been a member of the European Union since 1995, which has also been anchored in the constitution since 2011. Finland initially had 16 seats in the European Parliament . Due to the enlargement of the EU, this number fell to 14 in 2004, and to 13 in 2009. MEPs are elected by open lists. This means that each voter chooses a specific candidate. The votes of all candidates on a list are added up, and the result determines the number of seats that the relevant party receives. These are then filled by those candidates who have received the best results within the party list. In addition to Finns, citizens of other EU countries are also entitled to vote.
The first election to the EP took place in Finland after joining the EU in 1996 for the current period. Since 1999 the elections have taken place every five years together with the other EU countries. In the first election, the parties could choose to draw up lists for four electoral districts or national lists. Since all parties opt for the latter, Finland has since formed a single constituency for the European elections.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Self-Government Experiment of Kainuu Region 2005-2012 at kainuunliitto.fi, accessed October 30, 2017
- ↑ a b c d The Constitution of Finland (English) , Finlex Data Bank, June 11, 1999, last updated 2011, accessed November 4, 2017
- ↑ a b c PRESIDENTINVAALIT 1919-2006 Website of the President of Finland, accessed November 4, 2017
- ↑ Vaalipiirien paikkamäärät eduskuntavaaleissa ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Number of constituencies in parliamentary elections), Ministry of Justice election page, accessed November 5, 2017
