Votes cast for the parties and voting turnout

The Centre Party won the elections by a narrow margin

The Centre Party emerged as the biggest winner of the Parliamentary elections in comparison to the previous Parliamentary elections. It increased its proportion of votes cast by 2.3 percentage points, gaining 24.7 per cent of the votes cast in the whole country, which gave it four more seats in the Parliament. In all, it got 55 MPs and 689,391 votes, almost 89,000 more than in 1999. The Centre Party raised its support particularly in the southern part of Finland; it gained one additional seat in Helsinki, two seats in Uusimaa and one seat both in the constituencies of Häme and Satakunta.

The Social Democratic Party emerged as the second winner of the elections. It received 24.5 per cent of the votes cast, thus increasing its support by 1.6 percentage point and by two seats. The total number of votes cast for the party was 683,223, over 70,000 more than in the previous elections. The election result was nearly even between the Social Democratic Party and the Centre Party, as the Social Democratic Party lost by just good 6,000 votes to the Centre Party. In the previous elections this figure was over 12,000 in favour of the Social Democratic Party.

The National Coalition Party suffered a defeat in these elections. The number of votes cast for the party fell by proximately 46,000 and it lost six seats compared to the previous elections. Its proportion of votes cast was 18.6 per cent, which is 2.4 percentage points lower than in the previous Parliamentary elections. The total number of votes cast for the National Coalition Party was 517,904.

The number of votes cast for the new parties running to the Parliament was quite modest, as no representatives were elected from among them. The so-called protest votes were directed to the smallest parliamentary party, True Finns, which increased its seats from one to three.

Votes cast for the parties in Parliamentary elections 2003 and 1999

Votes cast for the parties in Parliamentary elections 2003 and 1999

Participation rose from the previous Parliamentary elections

The voting turnout of Finnish citizens living in Finland was 69.7 per cent. It was 1.4 percentage points higher than in 1999. Voting turnout has long been weak. From 1979 it has been falling at every elections but now it went up slightly for the first time.

Voting was most active in the constituency of Helsinki, 73.9 per cent. It was more active than average in the constituencies of Vaasa (73.5%), Uusimaa (70.9%) and Varsinais-Suomi (70.7%) as well. In the other constituencies voting turnout remained at under 70 per cent.

The total number of persons entitled to vote was 4,220,951. Of them, 4,015,552 were living in Finland and 205,399 abroad. The voting activity of expatriate Finns rose to 8.8 per cent. Compared to the previous elections, it went up by 2.3 percentage points.

Voting turnout in Parliamentary elections 1945 - 2003, (%)

Percentages of those entitled to vote, from 1975 excl. Finnish citizens resident abroad

Voting turnout in Parliamentary elections 1945 - 2003, (%)

Percentages of those entitled to vote, from 1975 excl. Finnish citizens resident abroad

Päivitetty 27.3.2003