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1916 Finnish parliamentary election

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Parliamentary elections were held in the Grand Duchy of Finland on 1 and 3 July 1916.

Background

The Finnish Parliament had not been in session during the early years of World War I. The Russian army's severe losses to the German army started to awaken among the Finns the hope that they could get regain self-government. The Russian government's plan to totally Russify Finland had been leaked to several Finnish newspapers in 1914, and had been heavily criticized. Its implementation had been suspended for the duration of the war.

Campaign

The workers´and tenant farmers´discontent with their social and economic problems was growing; workers still had to work an average of ten hours per day, and the tenant farmers still rented their lands from the landowning peasants, and they could be expelled from those lands if they did not fulfill their contracts´quite strict conditions. The Social Democrats managed to win their first and so far only parliamentary majority in the Finnish elections by promising more effectively than the bourgeois parties to help the poor and underprivileged people among the Finns.[1][2]

Results

Party Votes % Seats +/–
Social Democratic Party of Finland 376,030 47.29 103 +13
Finnish Party 139,111 17.49 33 –5
Young Finnish Party 99,419 12.50 23 –6
Swedish People's Party 93,555 11.76 21 –4
Agrarian League 71,608 9.00 19 +1
Christian Workers' Union 14,626 1.84 1 +1
Others 860 0.11 0
Invalid/blank votes 5,725
Total 800,934 100 200 0
Registered voters/turnout 1,442,091 55.5
Source: Mackie & Rose[3]
Popular vote
SDP
47.29%
SP
17.49%
NSP
12.50%
RKP
11.76%
ML
9.00%
KTL
1.84%
Others
0.11%
Parliament seats
SDP
51.50%
SP
16.50%
NSP
11.50%
RKP
10.50%
ML
9.50%
KTL
0.50%

References

  1. ^ Seppo Zetterberg et al (2003_ A Small Giant of the Finnish History WSOY
  2. ^ Allan Tiitta and Seppo Zetterberg (1992) Finland Through the Ages Reader's Digest
  3. ^ Thomas T Mackie & Richard Rose (1991) The International Almanac of Electoral History, Macmillan, p243 (vote figures)