1907 Finnish parliamentary election

1907 Finnish parliamentary election

15–16 March 1907 1908 →
All 200 seats in the Parliament of Finland 101 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Edvard Valpas-Hänninen Party SDP Finnish Young Finnish Seats won 80 59 26 Popular vote 329,946 243,573 121,604 Percentage 37.03% 27.34% 13.65%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Axel Lille Otto Karhi Antti Kaarne Party RKP Agrarian SKrTL Seats won 24 9 2 Popular vote 112,267 51,242 13,790 Percentage 12.60% 5.75% 1.55%

Parliamentary elections were held in the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland on 15 and 16 March 1907.^[1] They were the first parliamentary election in which members were elected to the new Parliament of Finland by universal suffrage and the first in the world in which female members were elected.

Background

The election followed the parliamentary reform of 1906 which replaced the

All political factions of Finland reached an agreement on the reform and the first elections were set for 1907. The 1906 reform ended the first period of attempted

Before the election of 1907 the

Electoral system

The voting system was designed to allow voters the choice between a simple list vote and expressing more particular preferences. A voter could vote for a party list of candidates by marking it with a red line. Alternatively, the voter could rank up to three names from among the candidates on any list in order of preference. Even further, a voter could vote for up to three persons from outside the lists by entering their names. The D'Hondt method was used to allocate seats after the list votes, preference votes and off-list votes were put together according to a somewhat complex procedure.

Campaign

The

The results of the first parliamentary election in Finnish history were somewhat a surprise for the traditional parties; the Social Democrats emerged as clear winners, winning 80 of the 200 seats, making them the largest faction in Parliament. Of the right-wing or centre-right parties the Finnish Party gained the most seats with 59, followed by the Young Finnish Party with 26 and the Swedish People's Party with 24. The Agrarian League won only nine seats but in the following years its support grew rapidly.

As a result of the election the representatives of workers and the landless people (the Social Democrats) became the largest group in the parliament, whereas previously they had no political representation whatsoever in the legislative body.

Women too gained representation; 19 female MPs were elected. They became the first female MPs in the world. They included

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	Social Democratic Party	329,946	37.03	80
	Finnish Party	243,573	27.34	59
	Young Finnish Party	121,604	13.65	26
	Swedish People's Party	112,267	12.60	24
	Agrarian League	51,242	5.75	9
	Christian Workers' Union	13,790	1.55	2
	Others	18,568	2.08	0
Total		890,990	100.00	200
Valid votes		890,990	99.07
Invalid/blank votes		8,357	0.93
Total votes		899,347	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,272,873	70.65
Source: Mackie & Rose[3]

Aftermath

The joy of the Social Democrats over their victory proved to be short lasting. The second period of attempted Russification in the Grand Duchy of Finland began the following year and the Russian Emperor dissolved the Parliament of Finland on numerous occasions in 1908–1917. During World War I the parliament did not convene for a long time. Thus the Social Democrats were not able to push through most of their desired reforms during these final years of the period of Finland's autonomy, despite being able to keep their position as the largest party in all elections of this period. As a result, many Socialist supporters lost their initially high hopes for the parliament elected by universal suffrage. This in turn was one factor among others in the development which led to the Finnish Civil War in 1918.

The 100th anniversary of the first Finnish Parliament was selected as the main motif for a high value commemorative coin, the €2 100th Anniversary of the Finnish Parliamentary commemorative coin, minted in 2006. The obverse shows the silhouette of a woman's and a man's hands, and below the hands ballots being inserted in a ballot-box. On the reverse, two stylized faces in the centre part, one male and the other female, separated by a thin curved line is depicted. They symbolize the equality of genders, as does the fact that the pictorial subjects on both sides are equal in respect to the centre of the coin.

See also

• Democracy in Europe

References