Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 19 April 2015, with advance voting taking place from 8 to 14 April. The 200 members of the Parliament of Finland were elected with the proportional D'Hondt method.

There were 4,463,333 people entitled to vote in Finland and abroad.

Background Previous government coalition

The incumbent government was a four-party coalition composed of the National Coalition Party, Social Democratic Party, Swedish People's Party and the Christian Democrats as well as independent Member of Parliament Elisabeth Nauclér. The Left Alliance and the Green League were initially also part of the governing coalition, but both left in 2014.

On 22 June 2011, the parliament elected Jyrki Katainen as prime minister by a vote of 118–72; two Left Alliance MPs voted against Katainen, for which they were formally reprimanded by the Left Alliance parliamentary group. They were subsequently expelled from the group, reducing the government majority from 126 MPs to 124. In March 2014 the Left Alliance announced that it was leaving the cabinet, citing the party's opposition to budget cuts in social welfare programs, which had been agreed to by the other five parties.Vasemmistoliitto lähtee hallituksesta YLE, 25 March 2014, accessed 18 September 2014. This reduced the government's majority to 112 MPs.

In April 2014 Jyrki Katainen announced that he would not seek another term as the chairman of the National Coalition Party. The NCP chose Alexander Stubb as its new chairman in June, and he subsequently became the new prime minister. In September 2014 the Green League announced that it was leaving the cabinet. The Greens were opposed to the other governing parties' decision to grant Fennovoima a licence for building a nuclear power plant in Pyhäjoki.Fennovoiman periaatepäätös hyväksyttiin, vihreät jättää hallituksen Helsingin Sanomat, 18 September 2014, accessed 18 September 2014. The Greens' departure cut the government's majority to 102 MPs (including the Speaker of the Parliament, who does not vote).Vihreät ulos hallituksesta – "Mieli on raskas ja pettynyt" YLE, 18 September 2014, accessed 18 September 2014.

Electoral district changes

In 2013 the parliament decided to merge certain electoral districts to create larger districts: the electoral districts of North Savo and North Karelia were merged into a new district called Savo-Karelia, while the electoral districts of Kymi and South Savo were merged into a new district called Southeast Finland.Vaalipiiriuudistus lyötiin lukkoon eduskunnassa YLE, 6 March 2013, accessed 18 September 2014.

Electoral district Seats 01 Helsinki 22 02 Uusimaa 35 03 Finland Proper 17 04 Satakunta 8 05 Åland 1 06 Häme 14 07 Pirkanmaa 19 08 Southeast Finland 17 09 Savo-Karelia 16 10 Vaasa 16 11 Central Finland 10 12 Oulu 18 13 Lapland 7

Opinion polls

Results

Government formation As the leader of the largest party, Juha Sipilä of Centre was tasked with forming the new government coalition. In early May, Sipilä announced that he would seek to form a right-leaning majority coalition consisting of the three largest parties—the Centre Party, the Finns Party and the National Coalition Party.Sipilä opts for right-leaning government, YLE News 7 May 2015, accessed 7 May 2015. The coalition negotiations were successful and led to the formation of the Sipilä cabinet on 29 May.

References

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