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Published: 20 February 2007

Nomination of candidates in the Parliamentary elections 2007

In Parliamentary elections each party, electoral alliance or joint electoral list may nominate at most 14 candidates in each constituency. If, by virtue of a Government decision, more than 14 representatives are elected from a constituency, the number of candidates may be at most the number of candidates elected from that constituency. As in these elections 34 representatives are elected from the constituency of Uusimaa on the basis of a Government decision, each party had the right to nominate at most the same number of candidates, i.e. 34, in the constituency of Uusimaa.

Altogether 2,004 candidates were nominated for the elections, which is nearly the same number as in the previous Parliamentary elections. Similarly to the previous Parliamentary elections, 18 parties take part in the current elections. All of these parties save one (The Finnish Workers' Party) also participated in the Parliamentary elections of four years ago. Three parties have, however, changed their name since 2003 (See Political parties and abbreviations in Parliamentary elections in 2007).

Approximately two-thirds of the candidates were nominated by current parliamentary parties (the Social Democratic Party, Centre Party, National Coalition Party, Left Alliance, Green League, Christian Democrats, Swedish People's Party and True Finns). The total number of candidates in this group was 1,529.
The numbers of candidates nominated by the other parties not in the present Parliament varied considerably. Among them, the highest number of candidates was nominated by the Communist Party of Finland (171) and the lowest by the Joint Responsibility Party (2). The number of candidates from outside parties was only 21 in the whole country. Four years previously the numbers of candidates nominated by the above mentioned groups and parties were nearly identical.

The majority of the Parliamentary election candidates have always been men. Women's proportion of candidates (39.9 %) was roughly level with the 2003 Parliamentary elections (women's proportion rose by 0.1 percentage points from the previous elections). When comparing the nomination of candidates by the current parliamentary parties with the previous Parliamentary elections, the proportion of women candidates either rose slightly or remained roughly the same, with the exception of the National Coalition Party, whose nominations of women candidates fell by 5 percentage points. For the fourth consecutive time more than one half (52.5 %) of the Green League candidates are women. The proportion of women candidates nominated by the Social Democratic Party was also nearly one half, or 49.1 per cent. In parties not in the present Parliament the proportions of women were smaller; all in all they nominated 72 per cent men and 28 per cent women candidates.

Of all candidates 69 per cent were aged 40 or over. In all, 120 were aged under 25, of whom six were aged 18 and 14 were 19 years old. The average age of all candidates was 46.4 years, that of male candidates was 48.1 and that of female ones 43.8. (The age refers to the age of the candidate on the election day).

Women and men as percentage of candidates in Parliamentary elections in 1948 - 2007 (%)

A national candidate register has been published on the Internet pages of the Ministry of Justice.

Source: Election Statistics, Parliamentary election 2007. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Mr Jari Tarkoma +358 9 1734 3625, vaalit.tilastokeskus@stat.fi

Director in charge: Ms Riitta Harala

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Appendix tables

• Age distribution of candidates by sex and party in Parliamentary elections 2007 (20.2.2007)
• Number of candidates by sex, party and constituency in Parliamentary elections 2007 (20.2.2007)
• Political parties and abbreviations in Parliamentary elections in 2007 (20.2.2007)
• Vote magnet - elected candidates with the most votes in Parliamentary elections 2003 (over 10,000 votes) (20.2.2007)

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Last updated 20.2.2007