Home > Statistics > Municipal elections > 2012 > Preliminary data: Coalition Party retained its position as the largest political party, True Finns the biggest winners in Municipal elections 2012

Published: 29 October 2012

Preliminary data: Coalition Party retained its position as the largest political party, True Finns the biggest winners in Municipal elections 2012

The Coalition Party retained its position as the biggest political party in the country which it had assumed in the previous Municipal elections. The Coalition Party took 21.9 per cent of all votes but lost its share of votes cast by 1.6 per cent compared with the previous Municipal elections. The total number of votes cast for the Coalition Party was 545,000, which was 53,000 votes less than in the 2008 Municipal elections. The data are based on Statistics Finland's statistics on the Municipal elections 2012.

Support for parties in Municipal elections 2012 and 2008, %

Other parties in 2012: Communist Party of Finland (SKP), Pirate Party (Pirate Pty), Independence Party (IP), Communist Worker's Party (KTP), Change 2011, Finnish Labour Party (STP), For the Poor (KA), Liberty Party (Liberty Pty)
Other parties in 2008: Communist Party of Finland (SKP), Independence Party (IP), Communist Worker's Party (KTP), Finnish Labour Party (STP), Finnish Seniors' Party (SSP), For the Poor (KA)
Others in 2012 and 2008: Constituency associations

The Social Democratic Party gained the second most votes and retained its position as the second largest political party in Finland. It took 19.6 per cent of all votes cast and lost 1.7 percentage points of support. The total number of votes cast for the SDP was around 487,000, which was 54,000 down from the previous Municipal elections.

The Centre Party of Finland kept its position as the third biggest party in Finland. Support for the Centre Party was 18.7 per cent and it lost 1.4 percentage points of support when compared to the preceding elections. The Centre Party took a total of 465,000 votes, which was 47,000 votes less than in 2008.

The True Finns emerged as the biggest winners in the elections as they increased their support the most of all parties and became the fourth largest party. Support for the True Finns now stood at 12.3 per cent, which was 7.0 percentage points more than in the preceding Municipal elections. The 307,000 votes taken by the True Finns indicated an increase of as much as 170,000 votes from 2008.

The Green League gained 8.5 per cent of all votes, which was 0.4 percentage points lower than in the previous Municipal elections. The Left Alliance took 8.0 per cent of all votes cast and lost 0.8 percentage points of support compared with the previous Municipal elections.

Voting turnout was distinctly lower in these elections than in the preceding Municipal elections. The voting percentage in the whole country stood at 58.2, having been 61.2 in 2008. A total of 42.4 per cent of all voters cast their vote in advance in the Municipal elections 2012.

Statistics Finland's election result services

Before the elections on 18 October 2012, Statistics Finland released a review on the background of municipal election candidates analysing the candidates' sex distribution, age, origin, education, employment, income level and family status in comparison to persons entitled to vote. The review will be supplemented on 2 November with background data on the elected councillors in connection with the release of the confirmed election results.

On 29 October 2012, Statistics Finland will open a free of charge election map service on the web containing data illustrated by maps and charts on the Municipal elections. The themes include voting turnout, the party with the most votes and support for parties and change in the support and the proportion of young, female and new councillors. The data can be browsed by various area categories such as municipalities, constituencies and the largest towns by voting district. The map data will be updated with the confirmed election results on 2 November 2012.

More detailed election result data are available in Statistics Finland's PX-Web database service where users can compile customised statistical tables on the elections. Database tables on the preliminary Municipal election data will be produced on 29 October 2012. Database tables according to the confirmed results of the Municipal elections will be released on 2 November 2012.

Election map service

Tables in databases

Source: Municipal Elections 2012, preliminary data, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Kimmo Moisio 09 1734 3239, Jaana Asikainen 09 1734 3506, vaalit@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

Publication in pdf-format (328.2 kB)

Tables

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Appendix tables

• Voting turnout in the Municipal elections in 1972-2012, % (29.10.2012)

Quality descriptions

• Municipal elections, quality description (29.10.2012)

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Updated 29.10.2012