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 2 and 3 January 1972.

Background

Prime Minister Karjalainen's centre-left government lost one party, the Communists, in March 1971 (they opposed the removal of government subsidies from certain foods, whose prices rose) and was forced to resign in October 1971, due to the Social Democrats' and Centrists' disagreement over the amount of agricultural subsidies. According to some historians, politicians and journalists, such as Allan Tiitta, Seppo Zetterberg, Johannes Virolainen, Veikko Vennamo and Pekka Hyvärinen, an underlying reason for these early parliamentary elections was President Kekkonen's desire to continue in office without regular presidential elections which had been scheduled for 1974. Re-election as President through exceptional means would require a five-sixths majority in Parliament and, according to the above analysts, Kekkonen hoped that such early elections would clearly reduce the number of Ruralist deputies, and would thus make the exceptional electoral law's passage in Parliament easier. Kekkonen remembered bitterly the loud and constant criticism of himself and of his foreign policy that Vennamo had practised during the 1968 presidential election campaign, and he was determined not to submit himself to such a vicious election campaign this time. Finland was also negotiating a free trade agreement with the European Economic Community, and most Finnish politicians believed that Finland could get a favourable free trade agreement with President Kekkonen's help. To most other parties' surprise, the Ruralists retained their 18 deputies. Government formation was difficult, because of partisan bickering and the elections' rather inconclusive result. Paasio (Social Democrat) formed a minority government of his own party in February 1972, replacing the Helsinki city manager Teuvo Aura's (Liberal) caretaker government. Finally, after tough negotiations, Social Democrat Kalevi Sorsa managed to form a new centre-left majority government (Social Democrats, Centrists, Swedish People's Party and Liberals) in September 1972. President Kekkonen's goal of re-election by Parliament was achieved in January 1973. It was helped by the Ruralists' split (thirteen of their deputies formed the Unity Party), and by most National Coalitioners' support of his re-election.

Results

Turnout	81.4%	−0.8

party	seats		votes
			proportion		amount
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...	55	+3	25.78%	+2.4	664,724	+70,539
National Coalition Party	34	−3	17.59%	−0.5	453,434	−4,148
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...	37	+1	17.02%	+0.4	438,757	+18,201
Centre Party 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...	35	−1	16.41%	−0.7	423,039	−11,111
Rural Party of Finland	18	--	9.16%	−1.3	236,206	−29,733
Liberal People's Party Liberals (Finland) Liberals is a free market liberal party in Finland. Founded in 1965 as a reunification of the People's Party of Finland and Liberal League. Originally named Liberal People's Party , it restyled its name as Liberals in 2000....	7	−1	5.16%	−0.8	132,955	−17,868
Swedish People's Party	9	−2	5.06%	−0.3	130,407	−5,058
Christian League of Finland Christian Democrats (Finland) The Christian Democrats is a Christian democratic political party in Finland. Formerly known as the Finnish Christian League , the Christian Democrats have six seats in the Finnish Parliament and one in the European Parliament.The party was founded in 1958, chiefly from the Christian faction of...	4	+3	2.53%	+1.4	65,228	+36,681
Social Democratic Union of Workers and Smallholders			0.99%	−0.4	25,527	−9,926
Åländsk Samling	1	--	0.30%	−0.1	7,672	−1,299
Total	200	--	100%		2,577,949	+42,167
Source: Tilastokeskus 2004