Municipal elections were held in Finland on 28 October 2012, with advance voting between 17 and 23 October 2012. 9,674 municipal council seats were open for election in 304 municipalities. The number of councillors decreased by over 700 compared to the previous election due to the merging of several municipalities. [1] The term of the elected councillors will begin on 1 January 2013.
In Finland, candidates have to declare their campaign funding. 15% of the declarations did not arrive in time. [2]
The D'Hondt method is used in the election. The size of the municipal council or city council depends on the population of the municipality: [3]
Population | Number of councilmen |
---|---|
under 2,000 | 13, 15 or 17 |
2,001–4,000 | 21 |
4,001–8,000 | 27 |
8,001–15,000 | 35 |
15,001–30,000 | 43 |
30,001–60,000 | 51 |
60,001–120,000 | 59 |
120,001–250,000 | 67 |
250,001–400,000 | 75 |
over 400,000 | 85 |
Helsinki is the only city in the last category and Espoo the only city in the second-to-last category.
Party | Votes [5] | Council seats | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number | % | Swing (2008) | Swing (2011) | Number | Net ± | ||
National Coalition | 545,889 | 21.9% | −1.6pp | +1.5pp | 1,735 | −286 | |
Social Democratic | 487,924 | 19.6% | −1.7pp | +0.5pp | 1,729 | −337 | |
Centre | 465,166 | 18.7% | −1.4pp | +2.9pp | 3,077 | −440 | |
Finns | 307,797 | 12.3% | +7.0pp | −6.7pp | 1,195 | +752 | |
Green League | 213,100 | 8.5% | −0.4pp | +1.3pp | 323 | −47 | |
Left Alliance | 199,615 | 8.0% | −0.8pp | −0.1pp | 640 | −193 | |
Swedish People's | 117,865 | 4.7% | ±0.0pp | +0.4pp | 480 | −30 | |
Christian Democrat | 93,257 | 3.7% | −0.4pp | −0.3pp | 300 | −51 | |
Communist Party | 11,174 | 0.4% | −0.1pp | +0.1pp | 9 | ±0 | |
Pirate Party (Finland) | 5,986 | 0.2% | New | −0.3pp | 0 | ±0 | |
Independence Party | 1,303 | 0.1% | ±0.0pp | −0.1pp | 0 | −2 | |
Change 2011 | 1,258 | 0.1% | New | −0.2pp | 1 | +1 | |
Communist Workers' Party – For Peace and Socialism | 704 | <0.1% | <0.1pp | <0.1pp | 0 | ±0 | |
For the Poor | 572 | <0.1% | <0.1pp | <0.1pp | 0 | ±0 | |
Workers Party | 538 | <0.1% | <0.1pp | <0.1pp | 0 | ±0 | |
Freedom Party | 15 | <0.1% | New | <0.1pp | 0 | ±0 | |
Others | 41,358 | 1.7% | −0.8pp | +1.3pp | 185 | −102 | |
Total | 2,493,521 | 9,674 | −738 | ||||
Turnout was 58.3%, [6] lower than in the previous municipal election.
Nils Ole Hilmer Torvalds is a Finnish politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2012. He is a member of the Swedish People's Party of Finland, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.
There are four types of elections in Finland. Each Finnish citizen at least 18 years of age has the right to vote in each of the elections, which decide the following: the president, the parliament, the MEPs, and the municipal and city councils.
Karkkila is a town and a municipality of Finland.
Paavo Matti Väyrynen is a Finnish politician and former member of the Finnish Parliament who has represented the Seven Star Movement, the Citizen's Party and Centre Party. He is currently member of Centre Party. Väyrynen has been a member of the Finnish Parliament previously from 1970 to 1995, and again from 2007 to 2011 and has held many ministerial portfolios. He has also been a Member of the European Parliament from 1995 to 2007, and again from 2014 to 2018.
The Communist Party of Finland (Finnish: Suomen Kommunistinen Puolue, SKP Swedish: Finlands kommunistiska parti, FKP) or New Communist Party of Finland (Finnish: Uusi Suomen Kommunistinen Puolue, USKP Swedish: Finlands nya kommunistiska parti, FNKP) is a political party in Finland. It was founded in the mid-1980s as Communist Party of Finland (Unity) (Finnish: Suomen Kommunistinen Puolue (yhtenäisyys), SKPy, Swedish: Finlands kommunistiska parti (enhet) FKP(e)) by the former opposition of the old Communist Party of Finland (1918–1992). SKP has never been represented in the Finnish parliament, but the party has had local councillors in some municipalities, including the city councils of major cities such as Helsinki and Tampere. SKP claims 2,500 members.
Raseborg is a town and municipality of Finland. It was created on January 1, 2009, when the municipalities of Ekenäs, Karis and Pohja were consolidated into a single town. Of these, Ekenäs now serves as the administrative center of Raseborg.
Jussi Kristian Halla-aho is a Finnish politician who has served as a member of the Parliament of Finland from 2011 to 2014 and again since 2019, and as the leader of the Finns Party from 10 June 2017 to 14 August 2021. Previously, between 2014 and 2019, he was a member of the European Parliament, where he was part of the Identity and Democracy group.
Denmark is divided into five regions, which contain 98 municipalities. The Capital Region has 29 municipalities, Southern Denmark 22, Central Denmark 19, Zealand 17 and North Denmark 11.
The Pirate Party is a registered political party in Finland. The group currently has around 173 paying members. The chairman of the party is Riikka Nieminen. The party is a member of Pirate Parties International and European Pirate Party.
For the Poor is a Finnish political party, not situated anywhere on the traditional political map. It was founded in November 2002. The party is one of the smallest in Finland, as it has no seats in either the Parliament of Finland or the European Parliament, and has only ever held one municipal council seat in the city council of Espoo (2008–2012).
Presidential elections were held in Finland in January and February 2012. The first round took place on 22 January 2012 with advance voting between 11 and 17 January. Since no candidate received a majority of the vote, a second round was held on 5 February, with advance voting between 25 and 31 January. Sauli Niinistö was elected the President of Finland for a term from 1 March 2012 until 1 March 2018.
The Belgian provincial, municipal and district elections of 2012 took place on 14 October. As with the previous 2006 elections, these are no longer organised by the Belgian federal state but instead by the respective regions:
Municipal elections were held in Finland on 26 October 2008, with advance voting between 15 and 21 October 2008. 10,412 municipal council seats were open for election in 332 municipalities. The number of councillors decreased by over 1,554 compared to the previous election due to the merging of several municipalities.
The 1979 Spanish local elections were held on Tuesday, 3 April 1979, to elect all 67,505 councillors in the 7,870 municipalities of Spain and all 1,152 seats in 43 provincial deputations. The elections were held simultaneously with local elections in the four foral deputations of the Basque Country and Navarre and the ten island councils in the Balearic and Canary Islands.
Citizens' Party was a Finnish political party, founded in 2016. It was founded by the long-time Centre Party politician and MEP Paavo Väyrynen, who left Centre in early 2016. Väyrynen acted as the first chairman of the party until July 2017, when he was succeeded by Sami Kilpeläinen.
The Feminist Party is a Finnish feminist political party. It was founded in June 2016, and registered as a political party in January 2017. The party has three chairpersons who are Katju Aro, Warda Ahmed, and Katriina Rosavaara. It calls gender equality, human rights, and human security the primary pillars of its politics.
Independence Party is a minor Eurosceptic political party in Finland. It was founded in 1994 as Alliance for Free Finland. The party supports membership in the European Economic Area as an alternative to Finland's membership in the European Union and the Eurozone. The party also opposes NATO. Its current chairman is Henri Aitakari.
City Council of Tampere is the highest decision-making organ of Tampere. It consists on 67 members who're elected every four years in the municipal election.
Municipal elections were held in Finland on 13 June 2021 after being rescheduled from 18 April due to the COVID-19 pandemic.