1929 Finnish parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 1 and 2 July 1929.[1] The result was a victory for the Agrarian League, which won 60 of the 200 seats in Parliament. Voter turnout was 55.6%.[2]

Background

President Relander, an Agrarian, believed that the Finnish civil servants should get a pay raise, after a long period of frozen salaries, that had caused them to lose a significant amount of purchasing power. Most of his fellow Agrarians opposed him and the Progressive minority government of Prime Minister Mantere on this issue, arguing that the civil servants, on average, were still clearly better paid than the agricultural workers. After the Finnish Parliament rejected the government's legislative proposal on the increase of civil servants' salaries in April 1929, President Relander dissolved Parliament and called early elections for July. The Agrarians and Communists campaigned on the rejection of the civil servants' proposed salary increases, and both parties gained seats. The National Coalitioners and Progressives who favoured the salary increases suffered a defeat. President Relander was displeased by the Agrarians' victory, because he could not get along well with their leader, Mr. Kallio, but he reluctantly appointed Kallio as Prime Minister of an Agrarian minority government after the elections.[3][4]

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Agrarian League	248,762	26.2	60	+8
	Social Democratic Party	260,254	27.4	59	–1
	National Coalition Party	138,008	14.5	28	–6
	Socialist Electoral Organisation of Workers and Smallholders	128,164	13.5	23	+3
	Swedish People's Party	108,886	11.4	23	–1
	National Progressive Party	53,301	5.6	7	–3
	Small Farmers' Party of Finland	10,154	1.1	0	New
	Peasant People's Party–Farmers' Party	1,258	0.1	0	0
	Others	2,483	0.3	0	0
Invalid/blank votes		5,026	–	–	–
Total		956,296	100	200	0
Source: Nohlen & Stöver, Tilastokeskus 2004,[5] Lackman[6]

Popular vote SDP   27.36% ML   26.15% KOK   14.51% STPV   13.47% RKP   11.45% ED   5.60% SPP   1.08% Others   0.39%

Parliament seats ML   30.00% SDP   29.50% KOK   14.00% STPV   11.50% RKP   11.50% ED   3.50%

References

1. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p606 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
2. Nohlen & Stöver, p607
3. Seppo Zetterberg et al., eds., A Small Giant of the Finnish History / Suomen historian pikkujättiläinen, Helsinki: WSOY, 2003
4. Sakari Virkkunen, Finland's Presidents I / Suomen presidentit I, Helsinki: WSOY, 1994
5. Tiedosto "595. Eduskuntavaalit 1927–2003 (Tilastokeskus 2004)
6. Matti Lackman: Taistelu talonpojasta (Pohjoinen 1985), s. 133.