The Green League of Finland

GREENS' RESULTS IN FINNISH ELECTIONS 1996

---

On Sunday 20th October 1996 Finland had two elections: the European elections and the local elections in 436 constituensies. Here are the results of the Green candidates.

The European Elections: MEP Heidi Hautala kept her seat

Finns elected 16 members to the European Parliament. The Green candidates gained 7,6 % of the votes (170 319 votes). MEP Heidi Hautala kept her seat in the Parliament. Hautala got almost half of the votes cast for the green candidates (83 336 votes) and the runner-up was former International Greenpeace chair Matti Wuori with over 40 000 votes.

The other 15 seat went to Conservatives (4), Social Democrats (4), Center Party (4), Left Wing Alliance (2) and the Swedish People's Party (1). The representatives of the Center Party and the Swedish People's Party will join the Liberal Group in the EP.

The Local Elections: could have been better ...

The Greens had candidates in 184 constituencies. Approximately 250 constituencies had no green list but these were mainly small places - 78 % of the Finns could vote Greens if they wanted to.

The result was 6,3 % for Greens (148 743 votes) and 291 seats in local councils (6,9 % and 343 seats in 1992 elections). The Greens did well in capital Helsinki gaining 18,4 % and 16 seats - one more than four years earlier. However, in other big cities like Turku, Tampere, Espoo and Vantaa greens lost a seat or two.

The big three (Conservatives, Social Democrats and the Center Party) held their positions with over 20 % of the votes for each party. The Green League maintained her position as the fifth largest party after the Left-Wing Alliance.

The voting activity was around 60 % in both elections.