Kokoomus, Vasemmistoliito gain in European polls

The ruling centre-right Kansallinen Kokoomus (National Coalition Party-NCP) and opposition leftist Vasemmistoliito (Left Alliance) gained in the European parliamentary elections held in Finland on Sunday while the radical right Perussuomalaiset (Finns Party), the second largest component of the four-party alliance government faced a major debacle.

Kokoomus secured top place with four seats, which is one seat higher than the previous election while Vasemmistoliito bagged three seats and the number is two seats more than the previous elections.

The main opposition Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue (Social Democratic Party of Finland-SDP), oppositions Suomen Keskusta (Centre Party of Finland) and Vihreä Liitto (Green League) got two seats each while two other components of the four-party alliance government Perussuomalaiset and Suomenruotsalainenkansanpuolue (Swedish People’s Party of Finland-RKP) got one seat each.

The number of seats of SDP, Keskusta and RKP remained unchanged while Perussuomalaiset and Vihreä Liitto lost one seat each from the previous European Parliamentary elections.

Vasemmistoliito leader Li Andersson bagged the highest 2,47,604 votes this year, which is ever highest votes received by any individual candidate in the European parliamentary polls in Finland.

She broke the record of former Suomen Keskusta (Centre Party of Finland) leader Paavo Väyrynen, who got 157 668 votes in the elections of 1996.

The elected four European Parliament members from Kokoomus are Mika Aaltola, Henna Virkkunen, Pekka Toveri and Aura Salla.

In addition to Andersson, Merja Kyllönen and Jussi Saramo were also elected EP members from Vasemmistoliito.

The other elected members of the European Parliament are Eero Heinäluoma and Maria Guzenina of SDP, Elsi Katainen and Katri Kulmuni of Keskusta, Ville Niinistö and Maria Ohisalo of Vihreä Liitto, Sebastian Tynkkynen of Perussuomalaiset and Anna-Maja Henriksson of RKP.

According to the preliminary results, a total of 1834893 votes out of 4546589 were cast in the elections in home and abroad and the turnout was 40.4 percent. The turnout in Finland was 42.4 percent while 5.9 percent abroad.

In Finland, 25.5 percent votes were cast in advance and 16.9 percent on the election day.

Kokoomus bagged 453016 votes, which is 24.8 of the total votes, followed by Vasemmistoliito 316758 (17.3%), Keskusta 215064 (11.8%), Vihreät 206178 (11.3%), Perussuomalaiset 139019 (7.6%) and RKP 112761 (6.2%).