Even though the Finnish elections were won by a male, women dominated Finland’s general election that took place on Sunday, with the most successful candidates being female.
The winner of the election is Peterri Orpo from the National Coalition Party with 20.8% of the vote, followed by Finns Party leader Riikka Purra in second place with 20.1% of the vote.
Purra obtained 42,589 votes by herself and became the most popular female candidate in the country in 75 years.
Coming second in the personal ranking was the outgoing Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP), with 35,623 votes from and around her hometown of Tampere. Trailing slightly behind was the rising star and the Deputy Chair of the National Coalition Party (NCP), Elina Valtonen, from the Helsinki electoral district. The 32,406 votes gave a boost to her ministerial aspirations in the next government and also increased her credibility as a possible future chair of her party, which has never been led by a female.
Outside the podium, Li Andersson, the Chair of the Left Alliance and the Education Minister of the outgoing government, gathered strong support. Ending as the sixth most popular candidate in the country, Andersson’s 18,122 votes did not, however help her party, which received only a modest result of 7.1%.
In the new 200-seat parliament, 46% of the MPs are women. The average age of the parliament serving the next four years is 47, and the newly elected were 30.5% of the candidates. The voter turnout dropped slightly and was 71.9%.
(Pekka Vänttinen | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
