Finnish parliamentary election, 1999

Finnish parliamentary election, 1999

21 March 1999

All 200 seats to the Parliament 101 seats were needed for a majority Turnout 65.3%   First party Second party Third party   Leader Paavo Lipponen Esko Aho Sauli Niinistö Party Social Democratic Centre National Coalition Leader since 1993 1990 1994 Last election 63 seats, 28.3% 44 seats, 19.9% 39 seats, 17.9% Seats won 51 48 46 Seat change 12 4 7 Popular vote 612,963 600,592 563,835 Percentage 22.9% 22.4% 21.0% Swing 5.4% 2.6% 3.1%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Suvi-Anne Siimes Satu Hassi Jan-Erik Enestam Party Left Alliance Green League Swedish People's Leader since 1998 1997 1998 Last election 22 seats, 11.2% 9 seats, 6.5% 11 seats, 5.1% Seats won 20 11 11 Seat change 2 2 0 Popular vote 291,675 194,846 137,330 Percentage 10.9% 7.3% 4.6% Swing 0.3% 0.8% 0.5%   Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party   Leader Bjarne Kallis Risto Kuisma Timo Soini Party Christian League Reform Finns Leader since 1995 1998 1997 Last election 7 seats, 3.0% new party 1 seat, 1.3% (SMP) Seats won 10 1 1 Seat change 3 1 0 Popular vote 111,835 28,549 26 440 Percentage 4.2% 1.1% 1.0% Swing 1.1% 1.1% 0.3%

Prime Minister before election Paavo Lipponen Social Democratic Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen Social Democratic

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Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 21 March 1999.^[1] Despite suffering significant losses, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) remained the largest party of the Eduskunta and Paavo Lipponen remained Prime Minister.

Background

Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen's five-party "rainbow government" consisting of the SDP, National Coalition Party, Left Alliance, Swedish People's Party and the Green League had been in power since April 1995. It had managed to keep Finland's economy growing, to reduce the state's budget deficit and to create jobs, although it had failed to halve the unemployment rate: in 1995, the unemployment had been 15.4% and in 1999, it still stood at 10.2%. This was, as the governing parties pointed out, still a better record than the previous centre-right government's performance; during its term between 1991 and 1995, the unemployment had risen from 6.6% to 15.4%.

Campaign

The largest opposition party, the Centre Party, tried to become the largest party overall, and to re-join the government. They called for labour reform, which they claimed would make it easier for employers to hire new employees and for small enterprises to operate. Finland's largest labour unions rejected the proposed work reform, claiming that it would reduce the employees' job security and would excessively increase the employers' power. The Centrists also accused the government of not improving the Finnish economy enough, and of not slowing down sufficiently the large internal migration of Finns from the rural towns and small cities to the large economic growth centres, like the Helsinki and Tampere regions.

Several parties hired as their candidates previously non-political or only locally politically active celebrities, such as Leena Harkimo, the manager of Helsinki's ice hockey team Jokerit, Lasse Virén, a former long-distance running Olympic champion, and Anni Sinnemäki, the songwriter of pop music group Ultra Bra. Some of these celebrities got elected. After the elections, Prime Minister Lipponen formed a new government of the same five parties. Only one of those parties left the government during the parliamentary term 1999-2003: the Greens moved into the opposition in May 2002, when the Parliament approved the construction of Finland's fifth nuclear power plant.^[2][3]

Results

References

Elections and referendums in Finland Parliamentary elections 1863 1867 1872 1877 1882 1885 1888 1891 1894 1900 1901 1905 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1913 1916 1917 1919 1922 1924 1927 1929 1930 1933 1936 1939 1945 1948 1951 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1972 1975 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 Municipal elections 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1928 1930 1933 1936 1945 1947 1950 1953 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2017 Presidential elections 1919 1925 1931 1937 1940 1943 1944 1946 1950 1956 1962 1968 1973 1978 1982 1988 1994 2000 2006 2012 2018 European elections 1996 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019 Referendums 1931 1994 Elections in brackets were not public elections