Finnish Elections
AS OF 2026-09-08 · 60 CONTESTS · presidential, 28 January and 11 February 2024 · WIKIPEDIA, NATIONAL ELECTORAL AUTHORITIES
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Finland's Eduskunta elections from 1907, the first in Europe held under universal suffrage and the first anywhere to seat women, through the 2023 election that brought the nationalist Finns Party into government for the first time. Every presidential election is here too: Parliament's choice of Ståhlberg in 1919, the electoral college that balloted for seven decades, the one president named by statute, and the direct votes since 1994, most recently Alexander Stubb's narrow 2024 win.
Source: Wikipedia election articles · as of 2026-09-08
Eduskunta seats
200
one chamber, proportional by district
Elections since 1907
60
Apr 2023
48 seats
National Coalition Party finished first
Presidential elections
Every presidential election since independence, newest first. Before 1994 the president was chosen indirectly: the college-era cards show the deciding ballot's votes out of the whole body, not a share of a popular vote.
The direct presidency · 1994-
Finland has elected its president directly since 1994; before that an electoral college chose the head of state, and the office carried real foreign-policy power until the 2000 constitution trimmed it. Every direct election is on file, from Martti Ahtisaari's 1994 runoff win over Elisabeth Rehn, the first time voters chose the president themselves, to 2024, the first contest since Finland joined NATO and the closest runoff the country has held: Alexander Stubb over Pekka Haavisto by 3.2 points. Sauli Niinistö's 2018 re-election is the only one decided in the first round.
Parliament and the electoral college · 1919-1988
From 1919 to 1988 Finland's president was chosen indirectly. Parliament elected the first, Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, in 1919, and again chose Paasikivi in 1946 after Mannerheim's wartime presidency, which began by special statute in 1944 with no vote at all. Otherwise voters elected a 300-member college that met weeks later and balloted until someone won a majority, or the top two met in a third ballot. It could take three: Svinhufvud beat Ståhlberg 151-149 in 1931, and Kekkonen beat Fagerholm by the same margin in 1956. The 1937 college was reassembled to elect Ryti in 1940 and 1943, and in 1988 a direct vote came first, with the college deciding only because Koivisto fell short of 50%.
Eduskunta elections
Every Eduskunta election since Finland's first, under universal suffrage in 1907, newest first. The Grand Duchy years carry a caveat for the parliament's repeated dissolution by the Russian Emperor.
The modern multi-bloc era · 2007-2023
No single party has approached a majority since 2007, so every government here is a multi-party coalition assembled after weeks of talks, and several have broken apart mid-term. The 2023 election put the National Coalition first by a narrow margin over the Finns Party and the governing Social Democrats, and the coalition Petteri Orpo built with the Finns brought the nationalist right into government for the first time; the two elections either side of it, in 2019 and 2023, were fought against the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Finland's decision to join NATO.
National Coalition Party 48Finns Party 46Social Democratic Party 43
Social Democratic Party 40Finns Party 39National Coalition Party 38
Centre Party 49Finns Party 38National Coalition Party 37
National Coalition Party 44Social Democratic Party 42True Finns 39
Centre Party 51National Coalition Party 50Social Democratic Party 45
Recession and the Rainbow Coalition · 1983-2003
The 1991 election, held deep in a recession that followed the Soviet collapse, threw out the Social Democrats for the Centre Party's Esko Aho, whose austerity government was in turn swept out in 1995 by the SDP's best result since the Second World War. What followed it was Paavo Lipponen's five-party Rainbow Coalition, Social Democrats governing alongside the National Coalition, Left Alliance, Swedish People's Party and Greens at once, a combination that carried Finland into the European Union in 1995 and held through two more elections.
Centre Party 55Social Democratic Party 53National Coalition Party 40
Social Democratic Party 51Centre Party 48National Coalition Party 46
Social Democratic Party 63Centre Party 44National Coalition Party 39
Centre Party 55Social Democratic Party 48National Coalition Party 40
Social Democratic Party 56National Coalition Party 53Centre Party 40
Social Democratic Party 57National Coalition Party 44Centre Party–Liberal People's Party 38
War and the Paasikivi-Kekkonen years · 1945-1979
The 1945 election, held as Communists returned to the ballot for the first time since 1930, opened three and a half decades in which Finnish governments were built around keeping Moscow reassured, the foreign policy line named for presidents Paasikivi and Kekkonen. Kekkonen himself dissolved parliament early in 1961 during a Soviet diplomatic pressure campaign known as the Note Crisis, and coalitions across these years ran from centre-left to broad multi-party governments assembled to survive recurring recessions.
Social Democratic Party 52National Coalition Party 47Centre Party 36
Social Democratic Party 54Finnish People's Democratic League 40Centre Party 39
Social Democratic Party 55Finnish People's Democratic League 37Centre Party 35
Social Democratic Party 52National Coalition Party 37Centre Party 36
Social Democratic Party 55Centre Party 49Finnish People's Democratic League 41
Agrarian League 53Finnish People's Democratic League 47Social Democratic Party 38
Finnish People's Democratic League 50Social Democratic Party 48Agrarian League 48
Social Democratic Party 54Agrarian League 53Finnish People's Democratic League 43
Social Democratic Party 53Agrarian League 51Finnish People's Democratic League 43
Agrarian League 56Social Democratic Party 54Finnish People's Democratic League 38
Social Democratic Party 50Finnish People's Democratic League 49Agrarian League 49
The young republic · 1919-1939
Independence in 1917 was followed by civil war in 1918, and the republic's elections through the interwar years were fought over how far the new state should tilt right. The 1930 election came after the Lapua Movement's campaign to outlaw the Communist Party by force, including the kidnapping of left-wing politicians; the Communists' front organisations were banned that year and stayed off the ballot until 1945. Parliament itself was dissolved early more than once in the period, most often over budget and salary fights the government of the day could not carry.
Social Democratic Party 85Agrarian League 56National Coalition Party 25
Social Democratic Party 83Agrarian League 53Swedish People's Party 21
Social Democratic Party 78Agrarian League 53National Coalition Party–Patriotic People's Movement 32
Social Democratic Party 66Agrarian League 59National Coalition Party 42
Agrarian League 60Social Democratic Party 59National Coalition Party 28
Social Democratic Party 60Agrarian League 52National Coalition Party 34
Social Democratic Party 60Agrarian League 44National Coalition Party 38
Social Democratic Party 53Agrarian League 45National Coalition Party 35
Social Democratic Party 80Agrarian League 42National Coalition Party 28
The Grand Duchy · 1907-1917
Finland's first Eduskunta election, in March 1907, was held under universal and equal suffrage for everyone over 24, a first in Europe and the first in the world to seat women as MPs; the old four-estate Diet of nobles, clergy, burghers and peasants was gone. It did the Social Democrats little lasting good: the Russian Emperor dissolved the new parliament repeatedly through the Grand Duchy's last decade of autonomy, and it barely sat at all once the First World War began.
Social Democratic Party 92Finnish Party–Young Finnish Party–People's Party 61Agrarian League 26
Social Democratic Party 103Finnish Party 33Young Finnish Party 23
Social Democratic Party 90Finnish Party 38Young Finnish Party 29
Social Democratic Party 86Finnish Party 43Young Finnish Party 28
Social Democratic Party 86Finnish Party 42Young Finnish Party 28
Social Democratic Party 84Finnish Party 48Young Finnish Party 29
Social Democratic Party 83Finnish Party 54Young Finnish Party 27
Social Democratic Party 80Finnish Party 59Young Finnish Party 26
The long arc in charts
Hover any point for the exact figure.
Turnout
Turnout ran above 70% at almost every Eduskunta election on file.
The largest party's seat share
No party has approached a majority since the Social Democrats' 103 of 200 seats in 1916; the largest party's share has mostly sat in the 20 to 25 percent range since the 1990s.
Records & superlatives
Highest presidential turnout
78.4%
1994, of the elections with a recorded figure
Lowest presidential turnout
66.8%
2018
Largest presidential win
62.6%
Sauli Niinistö, 2018
Narrowest presidential win
51.6%
Alexander Stubb, 2024
Closest college vote
151-149
Pehr Evind Svinhufvud over Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, 1931; Urho Kekkonen over Karl August Fagerholm, 1956, on the third ballot
Lowest elector turnout
39.7%
1925, of the elections that chose a college
Highest turnout
85.1%
1962, of the elections with a recorded figure
Lowest turnout
51.1%
1913
Highest vote share
47.3%
Social Democratic Party, 1916
Most seats won
103
Social Democratic Party, 1916
Largest seat total on record
103 of 200 seats
The only time a single party has held an outright Eduskunta majority; the Social Democrats lost it when parliament was dissolved and re-elected in October 1917.
Closest three-way finish
48-46-43 seats
The National Coalition Party finished first over the Finns Party and the governing Social Democrats by a margin of a few points each way.
How Finnish elections work
A single 200-seat chamber
The unicameral Eduskunta has held 200 seats since the first election in 1907, filled by proportional representation across multi-member districts with no legal threshold, which is why joint lists and small parties have always won a share of seats.
From the college to the ballot box
Until 1988 voters elected a 300-member college (301 from 1982), which balloted until someone won an absolute majority, or the top two met in a third ballot. Parliament chose the president in 1919 and 1946, and in 1944 a special law named Mannerheim. The 1988 election tried a mix: a direct vote that elected outright only above 50%, with a college elected the same day as the fallback. Since 1994 the vote has been direct, with a runoff between the top two if nobody passes 50% in the first round.
Coalitions, not majorities
No party has won an outright Eduskunta majority since the Social Democrats' single-party government of 1917, so every government here is a multi-party coalition, and several have fallen apart mid-term over budget or foreign-policy disputes.
From the Tsar's Diet to NATO
The Eduskunta replaced Finland's four-estate Diet in 1907 while the country was still a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire; independence followed a decade later. The 2023 election was fought as Finland completed its accession to NATO, ending the military neutrality it had kept since the Second World War.