1929 Finnish parliamentary election

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Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 1 and 2 July 1929.[1] The result was a victory for the Agrarian League, which won 60 of the 200 seats in Parliament. Voter turnout was 55.6%.[2]

Background[]

President Relander, an Agrarian, believed that the Finnish civil servants should get a pay raise, after a long period of frozen salaries, that had caused them to lose a significant amount of purchasing power. Most of his fellow Agrarians opposed him and the Progressive minority government of Prime Minister Mantere on this issue, arguing that the civil servants, on average, were still clearly better paid than the agricultural workers. After the Finnish Parliament rejected the government's legislative proposal on the increase of civil servants' salaries in April 1929, President Relander dissolved Parliament and called early elections for July. The Agrarians and Communists campaigned on the rejection of the civil servants' proposed salary increases, and both parties gained seats. The National Coalitioners and Progressives who favoured the salary increases suffered a defeat. President Relander was displeased by the Agrarians' victory, because he could not get along well with their leader, Mr. Kallio, but he reluctantly appointed Kallio as Prime Minister of an Agrarian minority government after the elections.[3][4]

Results[]

1929 Eduskunta.svg
Party Votes % Seats +/–
Agrarian League 248,762 26.2 60 +8
Social Democratic Party 260,254 27.4 59 –1
National Coalition Party 138,008 14.5 28 –6
Socialist Electoral Organisation of Workers and Smallholders 128,164 13.5 23 +3
Swedish People's Party 108,886 11.4 23 –1
National Progressive Party 53,301 5.6 7 –3
Small Farmers' Party of Finland 10,154 1.1 0 New
Peasant People's Party–Farmers' Party 1,258 0.1 0 0
Others 2,483 0.3 0 0
Invalid/blank votes 5,026 – – –
Total 956,296 100 200 0
Source: Nohlen & Stöver, Tilastokeskus 2004,[5] Lackman[6]
Popular vote
SDP
 
 27.36%
ML
 
 26.15%
KOK
 
 14.51%
STPV
 
 13.47%
RKP
 
 11.45%
ED
 
 5.60%
SPP
 
 1.08%
Others
 
 0.39%
Parliament seats
ML
 
 30.00%
SDP
 
 29.50%
KOK
 
 14.00%
STPV
 
 11.50%
RKP
 
 11.50%
ED
 
 3.50%

References[]

  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p606 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p607
  3. ^ Seppo Zetterberg et al., eds., A Small Giant of the Finnish History / Suomen historian pikkujättiläinen, Helsinki: WSOY, 2003
  4. ^ Sakari Virkkunen, Finland's Presidents I / Suomen presidentit I, Helsinki: WSOY, 1994
  5. ^ Tiedosto "595. Eduskuntavaalit 1927–2003 (Tilastokeskus 2004)
  6. ^ Matti Lackman: Taistelu talonpojasta (Pohjoinen 1985), s. 133.
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