Elections in Denmark

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There are three types of elections in Denmark: elections to the national parliament (the Folketing), local elections and elections to the European Parliament. Referendums may also be called to consult the Danish citizenry directly on an issue of national concern.

Parliamentary elections are called by the Monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister, usually four years after the last election, although early elections may occur. Elections to local councils (municipal or regional) and to the European Parliament are held on fixed dates. Elections use the party-list proportional representation system. Only citizens on the national register are eligible to vote in parliamentary elections and long-time residents may vote in local elections.

The last election was the Danish referendum on the replacement of the opt-out model on home and justice affairs held on 3 December 2015.

Parliamentary elections

The voter turnout for the Danish general elections 1953-present

The Kingdom of Denmark (including the Faroe Islands and Greenland) elects a unicameral parliament, the Folketing, on a national level. Of the 179 members of parliament, the Faroe Islands and Greenland elect two members each, 135 are elected from ten multi-member constituencies on a party list PR system using the d'Hondt method and the remaining 40 seats are allocated to ensure proportionality at a national level. To get a share of supplementary seats a party needs to get at least 2% of the total number of votes.

Denmark has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments and/or minority cabinets.

Elections to the Folketing must be held at least every four years.

Latest general election

Danish general election, 2015

For Denmark proper, the "Red" bloc (A+B+F+Ø+Å) won 85 seats and the "Blue" bloc (V+O+I+C+K) 90 seats. Even with all of the extra four seats from Greenland and the Faroe Islands going to the "Red" bloc, it would still be one seat behind the "Blue" bloc.

Local elections

The latest elections for the ninety-eight municipal councils and the five regional councils were held on 19 November 2013.

European elections

The Denmark constituency directly elects thirteen members to the European Parliament every five years. The d'Hondt method of proportional representation is used. The last elections took place in May 2014:

Referendums

The Constitution of Denmark requires a referendum to be held in the following three cases:

• if one third of the members of the Parliament demands a referendum on a law that has been passed in the previous 30 days (excluding some ) (Section 42 of the Constitution),^[1] or
• a law that transfers sovereignty to an international organisation has not received a majority of five sixth of the MPs (Section 20 of the Constitution),^[1] or
• in case of changing the electoral age (Section 29 of the Constitution).^[1]

The option for one third of the members of the Parliament to put a law to a referendum has a number of restrictions. Finance Bills, Supplementary Appropriation Bills, Provisional Appropriation Bills, Government Loan Bills, Civil Servants (Amendment) Bills, Salaries and Pensions Bills, Naturalization Bills, Expropriation Bills, Taxation (Direct and Indirect) Bills, as well as Bills introduced for the purpose The Work of Parliament of discharging existing treaty obligations shall not be decided by a referendum. (Section 42, Subsection 6 of the Constitution)^[1]

Even though the Constitution of Denmark requires referendum to be held only if super-majority of five sixths of members of Parliament cannot be obtained, in practise, referendums have been held every time new treaties of the European Union have been approved, even when more than five sixths can be found. Recently, the Danish government was highly criticized when it did not hold a referendum regarding the controversial Lisbon treaty.

In all three cases, to defeat the proposition the no votes must not only outnumber the yes votes, they must also number at least 30% of the electorate.

The Constitution of Denmark can be changed only after a referendum, after a complicated procedure (Section 88 of the Constitution).^[1] First a government proposes a change in constitution, then a parliamentary election is held. After the new parliament approves the same text of the constitutional changes, the proposal is put to a referendum. To pass, the yes votes must not only outnumber the no votes, they must also number at least 40% of the electorate.

As of 2013, 16 referendums had been held in Denmark, the most recent being Danish euro referendum in 2000 and Danish Act of Succession referendum in 2009.

Past elections

2015 elections

 Summary of the 18 June 2015 Parliament of Denmark election results^[2][3][4]

Parties		Leaders	Votes			Seats
			#	%	±	#	±
Denmark proper
	Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterne) (A)	Helle Thorning-Schmidt	925,288	26.3	1.5	47	3
	Danish People's Party (Dansk Folkeparti) (O)	Kristian Thulesen Dahl	741,173	21.1	8.8	37	15
	Liberals (Venstre, Danmarks Liberale Parti) (V)	Lars Løkke Rasmussen	684,223	19.5	7.2	34	13
	Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten) (Ø)	Collective leadership	273,870	7.8	1.1	14	2
	Liberal Alliance (Liberal Alliance) (I)	Anders Samuelsen	264,449	7.5	2.5	13	4
	The Alternative (Alternativet) (Å)	Uffe Elbæk	168,585	4.8	New	9	New
	Danish Social Liberal Party (Det Radikale Venstre) (B)	Morten Østergaard	160,672	4.6	4.5	8	9
	Socialist People's Party (Socialistisk Folkeparti) (F)	Pia Olsen Dyhr	148,027	4.2	5.0	7	9
	Conservative People's Party (Det Konservative Folkeparti) (C)	Søren Pape Poulsen	118,015	3.4	1.5	6	2
	Christian Democrats (Kristendemokraterne) (K)	Stig Grenov	29,148	0.8	0	0	0
	Candidates without parties		3,027	0.2	0.1	0	0
	Blue Alliance (O, V, I, C, K)	Lars Løkke Rasmussen	1,837,008	51.7	1.9	90	4
	Red Alliance (A, Ø, Å, B, F)	Helle Thorning-Schmidt	1,676,442	47.1	3.1	85	4
	Invalid votes		40,068
Subtotal (Turnout: 85.8% – electorate: 4,145,321)			3,556,545	100.0		175
Faroe Islands
	Republic (Tjóðveldi) (E)	Høgni Hoydal	5,730	24.5	5.1	1	1
	Social Democratic Party (Javnaðarflokkurin) (JF)	Aksel V. Johannesen	5,666	24.3	3.3	1	0
	Union Party (Sambandsflokkurin) (B)	Kaj Leo Johannesen	5,500	23.5	7.3	0	1
	People's Party (Fólkaflokkurin) (A)	Jørgen Niclasen	4,368	18.7	0.3	0	0
	Progress (Framsókn) (F)	Poul Michelsen	749	3.2	New	0	New
	Centre Party (Miðflokkurin) (H)	Jenis av Rana	605	2.6	1.6	0	0
	Self-Government Party (Sjálvstýrisflokkurin) (D)	Jógvan Skorheim	403	1.6	0.7	0	0
	Candidates without parties		345	1.5	1.8	0	0
	Invalid votes		210
Subtotal (Turnout: 65.6% – electorate: 35,614)			23,576	100.0		2
Greenland
	Community of the People (Inuit Ataqatigiit) (IA)	Sara Olsvig	7,904	38.5	4.2	1	0
	Social Democratic Forward (Siumut) (S)	Kim Kielsen	7,831	38.2	1.1	1	0
	Democrats (Demokraatit) (D)	Anda Uldum	1,753	8.5	4.1	0	0
	Unionist Party (Atassut) (A)	Knud Kristiansen	1,526	7.4	0.1	0	0
	Point of Orientation Party (Partii Naleraq) (PN)	Hans Enoksen	962	4.7	New	0	New
	Invalid votes		538
Subtotal (Turnout: 50.0% – electorate: 41,048)			20,514	100.0		2
Overall
	Blue Alliance (O, V, I, C, K)	Lars Løkke Rasmussen	1,837,008	51.0	1.7	90	3
	Red Alliance (A, Ø, Å, B, F, E, JF, IA, S)	Helle Thorning-Schmidt	1,703,573	47.3	2.9	89	3
Total (Turnout: 85.3% – electorate: 4,221,983)			3,600,635	100.0		179

All turnout figures include invalid votes, subtotals and totals exclude invalid votes

2011 elections

All turnout figures include invalid votes, subtotals and totals exclude invalid votes

2007 elections

	Party	Votes	% of votes	MPs	swing	% of MPs	MPs %/votes %
	Total		100	179	0	100	1.00
	3 biggest		65.6	116	7	64.8	0.99
	The cabinet		50.5	90	5	50.3	0.98
	The opposition		49.5	89	5	49.7	1.02

See also

• Politics of Denmark
• Cabinet of Denmark
• Electoral calendar
• Faroe election results
• Greenland election results

References

External links

• Adam Carr's Election Archive
• Political parties and elections
• NSD: European Election Database - Denmark publishes regional level election data; allows for comparisons of election results, 1990-2007