Päivitetty 17.3.1999

Nomination of candidates

In Parliamentary elections, each party, electoral coalition or joint electoral list may nominate no more than 14 parliamentary candidates in each constituency. If, by a Council of State decision, more than 14 candidates are to be elected from a constituency, the number of candidates nominated may not exceed the number of candidates to be elected from that constituency. As, by virtue of a Council of State decision, 32 candidates are to be elected from the constituency of Uusimaa in these elections, each party in that constituency was entitled to nominate at most an equal number of candidates, i.e. 32.

A total of 1,993 candidates were nominated for the Parliamentary elections. This is 90 fewer than in the previous Parliamentary elections. Eighteen parties take part in the elections, for which the five major parties (SDP, KESK, KOK, LEFT and GREENS) nominated almost the maximum number allowed by law in all constituencies. The number of candidates from the major parties ranged from 196 to 229 in the whole country and they accounted for more than one half of all candidates, 54 per cent. The numbers of candidates nominated by the minor parties varied considerably; among them, the highest number of candidates was nominated by SKP, 133, and the lowest by EKA, 16. There were only 68 independent candidates in the whole country. As many as 166 (83%) of the present Members of Parliament are still running for the coming Parliament.

Men have always been in the majority among Parliamentary election candidates. Now there are 1,256 male candidates and 737 female ones. The proportion of women among candidates (37%) fell for the second time after a positive upward trend of about 30 years. When comparing the nomination of candidates for the Parliamentary elections 1995, only in LEFT the proportion of female candidates has gone up, in GREENS and KOK it has remained almost unchanged and in SDP and KESK the number of women has fallen.

70 per cent of the candidates are aged 40 or older. The figure is 74 per cent for male candidates and 65 per cent for female ones. 101 candidates are under 25 years old, of whom seven are 18 and ten 19 years of age.

Percentage of women and men candidates in the parliamentary elections 1948 - 1999