HELSINKI, June 14 (Xinhua) – Finland’s opposition conservative party, the National Coalition, remains the largest party in terms of voter support in Sunday’s local elections. Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s ruling Social Democrats took second place.
According to preliminary results published on Monday, with 100 percent of the vote, the national coalition had taken 21.4 percent of the vote, followed by the Social Democrats with 17.7 percent.
This year’s election was seen as the first test for the 35-year-old Marin, who took office in December 2019.
The vote was held to elect local or municipal members. The election was postponed from April due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Finnish opposition party strengthened its support across the country to 14.5 percent, but still remained in fourth place and failed to remove the center party as they had hoped.
The centrist government member Center Center won 14.9 percent.
In the capital Helsinki, the order of the three best parties was unchanged. The national coalition received 25.7 percent of the vote. The Greens finished second with 19.8 percent and the Social Democrats third with 14.4 percent.
The result means that the conservative politician Juhana Vartiainen will be the next mayor of Helsinki.
In terms of seats won in the country’s over 300 municipal councils, the center party remained the largest with 2448 seats. The national coalition won 1,554 seats and the Social Democrats 1,449.
According to the Ministry of Justice, turnout was only 55.1 percent this year, the lowest since 1945.
Teemu Luukka, an analyst for the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, noted that the results of the Social Democrats were historically low, but Prime Minister Marin himself could claim a good result in his hometown of Tampere and her position is not jeopardized in the party.
The current Finnish governing coalition consists of the Social Democratic Party, the Center Party, the Green League, the Left Alliance and the Swedish People’s Party. The Finn Party, the Conservative National Coalition Party, the Christian Democrats and the movement are now in opposition.
In Finland, municipalities have the right to tax income and are responsible for services such as education and health and social services.
Source: sn.dk