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 4 and 5 February 1962.

Background

Sukselainen's second minority government had resigned in 1961, followed by Prime Minister Martti Miettunen's (Agrarian/Centrist) first government, also a centrist minority government. In the spring of 1961, Mr. Olavi Honka, a former Chancellor of Justice (Attorney General), had accepted the presidential candidacy of the Social Democrats, National Coalitioners, Swedish People's Party, Liberals, Smallholders' Party and League of Liberals. This Honka Alliance's goal was to defeat President Kekkonen in the presidential elections of January and February 1962. Their plans were derailed, however, in October 1961, when the Soviet Union sent a diplomatic note to Finland, asking it to participate in negotiations about the two countries' military co-operation. The Soviet government claimed that militarism and neo-Nazism were increasing in West Germany, and thus Finland and the Soviet Union would have to negotiate on the basis of the Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance Treaty. In late November 1961, Kekkonen dissolved Parliament and called an early election for February 1962. Shortly thereafter, Honka ended his presidential candidacy "for the fatherland's interest." Kekkonen travelled to the Soviet Union (Novosibirsk), where he negotiated briefly with the Soviet leader Khrushchev. Again Khrushchev assured Kekkonen that all was well in the Finnish-Soviet relations, despite the efforts of "anti-Soviet" Finns to worsen them. These parliamentary elections were held in the first week of February 1962, between the Electoral College elections and the second phase of the presidential elections. The parties that still opposed Kekkonen's re-election had trouble campaigning in both the presidential and the parliamentary elections. After these parliamentary elections, Ahti Karjalainen (Agrarian/Centrist) formed a centre-right majority government that remained in office until December 1963. It was replaced by another caretaker government, led by Bureau Chief (a senior civil servant) Reino Lehto.

Results

Turnout	85.1%	+10.1

party	seats		votes
			proportion		amount
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...	53	+5	22.95%	−0.1	528,409	+80,045
Finnish People's Democratic League Finnish People's Democratic League Finnish People's Democratic League was a Finnish political organisation with the aim of uniting those left of the Finnish Social Democratic Party...	47	−3	22.02%	−1.1	506,829	+56,609
Social Democratic Party of Finland 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...	38	−10	19.50%	−3.6	448,930	−606
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...	32	+3	15.06%	−0.2	346,638	+49,544
People's Party of Finland	13	+5	6.34%	+0.4	146,005	+31,388
Swedish People's Party	13	-	6.11%	−0.4	140,689	+14,324
Social Democratic Union of Workers and Smallholders	2	−1	4.36%	+2.6	100,396	+66,449
Small Farmers' Party of Finland			2.16%	–	49,773	–
Liberal League Vapaamielisten Liitto Liberal League was a Finnish liberal political party. VL existed from 1951 until 1965.The party was founded in spring 1951 by the minority of National Progressive Party, led by Helsinki group, as the party finished its existence. Most of the former Progressive party members joined the People's...	1	+1	0.52%	+0.2	12,000	+5,576
Centre Party of Finland			0.38%	–	8,686	–
Åländsk Samling	1		0.32%	+0.0	7,261	+1,774
The Opposition of Small Farmers' Party of Finland			0.27%	–	6,329	–
Others			0.00%	−0.0	53	−189
Total	200	--	100%		2,301,998	+357,763
Source: Tilastokeskus 2004