Parliamentary elections were held in Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 on 1 and 2 July 1929. The result was a victory for the Agrarian League

Centre Party (Finland)

The Centre Party is a centrist and Nordic agrarian political party in Finland. It is one of the four largest political parties in the country, along with the Social Democratic Party , the National Coalition Party and the True Finns , and currently has 35 seats in the Finnish Parliament...

, which won 60 of the 200 seats in Parliament. Voter turnout was 55.6%.

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.

Results

8

3

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Agrarian League Centre Party (Finland) The Centre Party is a centrist and Nordic agrarian political party in Finland. It is one of the four largest political parties in the country, along with the Social Democratic Party , the National Coalition Party and the True Finns , and currently has 35 seats in the Finnish Parliament...	248,762	26.2	60
Social Democratic Party Social Democratic Party of Finland The Social Democratic Party of Finland is one of the three major political parties in Finland, along with the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party. Jutta Urpilainen is the current SDP leader. The party has been in the Finnish government cabinet for long periods and has set many...	260,254	27.4	59	–1
National Coalition Party National Coalition Party (Finland) The National Coalition Party is a liberal conservative political party in Finland founded in 1918.The National Coalition Party is one of the four largest parties in Finland, along with the Social Democratic Party, the Centre Party and the True Finns...	138,008	14.5	28	–6
Socialist List of Workers and Smallholders	128,164	13.5	23
Swedish People's Party	108,886	11.4	23	–1
National Progressive Party National Progressive Party (Finland) The National Progressive Party was a liberal political party in Finland from 1918 to 1951. The party was founded December 8 1918, after the Finnish Civil War, by the republican majority of the Young Finnish Party and the republican minority of the Finnish Party...	53,301	5.6	7	–3
Small Farmers' Party of Finland Small Farmers' Party of Finland Small Farmers' Party of Finland was a party for the farmers suffering the great depression in Finland. The party joined with two other parties in 1936 and became the Party of the Small Farmers' and the Rural People. The Small Farmers' Party of Finland was established 12th May, 1929...	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, Lackman