Parties see Uusimaa electoral district as “super constituency”
Heavyweight candidates congregating
Jyrki Katainen
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Tuija Brax
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Paula Lehtomäki
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Alexander Stubb
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Paavo Väyrynen
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The party secretaries of the three largest parties, the Centre, the National Coalition, and the Social Democrats, all expect the Uusimaa electoral district to decide the overall outcome of next year’s Parliamentary elections.
The Centre Party’s Timo Laaninen feels that it is understandable that Uusimaa is considered important, because 35 of Finland’s 200 Members of Parliament will be elected there.
“If a party plans to win the elections, it has to win in Uusimaa as well. This explains why the parties have tried to get some powerful names in the area”, Laaninen said to Helsingin Sanomat on Wednesday.
There certainly are some heavy-hitters among the candidates being put forward in the district. Newcomers from government parties who are standing here for the first time include National Coalition Party leader and Minister of Finance Jyrki Katainen, Minister of the Environment Paula Lehtomäki (Centre), Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb (Nat. Coalition Party), Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen (Centre), and Minister of Justice Tuija Brax (Green).
On the opposition side, the best-known person on offer is Social Democratic Party Secretary Mikael Jungner, the former CEO of the Finnish Broadcasting Company, YLE.
Also competing for votes in the area is True Finns’ chairman Timo Soini, who got the third-largest number of personal votes in the previous elections, in the spring of 2007.
National Coalition Party Secretary Taru Tujunen, who is going into the election as something of a favourite, is expecting an exciting campaign in the Uusimaa district.
However, she points out that a nationwide victory for a party requires success in other regions as well. Turunen notes that the National Coalition Party cannot win the elections in Uusimaa with the help of the high-profile Katainen and Stubb alone, and that success requires hard work by all candidates.
Tujunen expects the opposition True Finns to gain several seats in the next elections, but she does not anticipate a massive surge in Uusimaa on the coat-tails of Timo Soini.
“My prediction is that two or three True Finns will be elected from Uusimaa. I expect that they will get seats from districts where they do not have any yet”, Turunen said.
Social Democratic Party Secretary Mikael Jungner sees Uusimaa as a real super constituency in the upcoming elections. Jungner himself plans to be a candidate in Uusimaa, and he feels that the array of candidates means that there will be plenty of interesting election debates.
One factor worth observing in his view is how well the populist True Finns will manage to challenge the Greens, who are traditionally strong in this neck of the woods, and what kind of foreign policy debate will emerge between Väyrynen and Stubb. He said that he himself plans to challenge Katainen’s economic policies in a manner reminiscent of Speaker of Parliament and former Finance Minister Sauli Niinistö (Nat. Coalition Party).
The SDP has not managed to attract as notable candidates for the district as the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party have, but Jungner promises that there will be some strong names.
One potential runner that would certainly suit the party would be Lauri Ihalainen, former president of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK).
Jungner’s assessment of Uusimaa as a “super district” is echoed by Ville Pernaa, head of the Centre of Parliamentary Studies at the University of Turku.
Pernaa says that in recent history, the media has started to emphasise elections as a choice of prime ministers among party leaders - a trend that has suited the parties quite well.
“Now it is the time for the next election gimmick, which is the formation of this kind of a super electoral district.”
Pernaa feels that the idea of concentrating heavyweight candidates in one district is that the parties hope that the resulting media visibility will allow them to both fight for the seats available in Uusimaa and at the same time to encourage their supporters to turn out in large numbers in other parts of the country as well.
Links:
Ministry of Justice Elections site
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 19.8.2010 - TODAY |
Parties see Uusimaa electoral district as “super constituency”
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