National Coalition still biggest political party in Helsinki

Social Democrats ahead of the Green League

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The National Coalition maintains its status as the leading political party in Helsinki, even though on the national scale it is clearly behind the Social Democrats and the Centre Party in approval ratings.
      According to an opinion poll commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat and conducted by Suomen Gallup in the last week of August, the National Coalition's support in Helsinki was 26.2 percent. The Social Democrats and the Green League enjoyed 22.9 and 20.9 percent approval ratings respectively.
      Support for the National Coalition has fallen from the 2000 local election heyday, when the party's scraped up 28.9 percent of the cast votes.
      At the time, the Green League was the second biggest party in Helsinki with a 23.5-percent support, while the Social Democrats secured third place at 20.5 percent.
     
In the wake of the October local elections, an even competition is expected between the three leading parties in the Finnish capital.
      One of the tasks of the new city council will be to elect a new mayor, which adds interest to securing a victory in the upcoming elections. The mayor of Helsinki, Eeva-Riitta Siitonen (National Coalition), will retire after May 2005.
     
In the 2003 parliamentary election, the National Coalition's support temporarily plummeted in the Helsinki electoral district.
      The Centre Party temporarily raked in prise votes in the capital, as the main competition for the prime minister's seat was between the re Party's Anneli Jäätteenmäki and the Social Democrat Paavo Lipponen.
      The panic that followed the electoral defeat eventually led to the National Coalition party leader Ville Itälä's resignation.
     
In the local elections national political questions have no bearing.
      In Helsinki, local political decision makers are sought to fill the 85 seats of the city council, where the National Coalition has had the largest representation without a break since 1981.
      Way behind the three strongest parties trail the Swedish People's Party, the Left Alliance, and the Centre Party, each with slightly over seven percent support.
      With its present three-percent support, the right wing party True Finns might secure two or three seats in the Helsinki city council for the first time.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  HS Gallup: National Coalition Party at lowest level in nearly ten years (15.3.2004)

Links:
  The National Coalition Party

Helsingin Sanomat