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Published: 14 May 2009

Nomination of candidates in European Parliament elections 2009

Elections of the Members of the European Parliament will be held in 27 European Union countries between 4 and 7 June 2009. In Finland the election day is 7 June 2009. Advance voting takes place in Finland on 27-30 May and 1-2 June 2009 and abroad on 27-30 May 2009. Elections for the Members of European Parliament (European Parliament elections) are held in each Member State in accordance with national election legislation. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament will be selected for the five-year electoral period 2009-2014 and thirteen of them will be Finnish.

In Finland candidates for the European Parliament elections can be nominated by registered parties and voters’ associations set up by eligible voters. Parties may establish electoral alliances and voters’ associations can form joint lists. Each party or electoral alliance may nominate at most 20 candidates and all of these candidates are nominated nationwide. One voters’ association was set up for these elections.

All but one of the 14 registered political parties and one voters’ association nominated candidates in the elections (the Communist Workers’ Party did not nominate candidates). The total number of candidates is 241. Of the candidates 139 are men and 102 are women. The National Coalition Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Left Alliance nominated equal numbers of women and men. Women are in the majority among the Green League’s nominations; 11 of the nominated candidates are women and 9 men. The other parties nominated more men candidates than women. All the parties that nominated candidates made the maximum legal number of nominations (20). The electoral alliance of the Christian Democrats and the True Finns also nominated 20 candidates (both parties nominated 10 candidates). The Finnish Senior Party participated in the 2004 European Parliament elections under the name Pensioners for the People and nominated 12 candidates. The Independence Party and the Finnish Workers’ Party participate in these elections as new parties. In 2004 the current Independence Party operated under the name Independence Party League for Free Finland and the current Finnish Workers’ Party operated under the name Alternative Union. These parties did not participate in the previous European Parliament elections.

The average age of candidates in these elections is 48.2 years, which is nearly 3 years higher than in the 2004 European Parliament elections (45.6 years). There are only five candidates aged under 25, whereas in the previous European Parliament elections there were 23 candidates aged under 25. More than half (121) of the candidates are aged 50 or over.

The number of candidates by sex and party in the European Parliament elections in 2009

Candidates	Tot.	KOK	KESK	SDP	GREENS	LEFT	RKP	KD	PS	SKP	SSP	IP	KA	STP	voter's assoc.
Total	241	20	20	20	20	20	20	10	10	20	20	20	20	20	1
Men	139	10	13	10	9	10	11	6	7	11	15	12	11	14	-
Women	102	10	7	10	11	10	9	4	3	9	5	8	9	6	1

Source: European Parliament Elections 2009, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Kimmo Moisio 09 1734 3239, Jaana Asikainen 09 1734 3506

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

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• Name and number of candidates by party and electoral coalition in the European Parliament elections 2009 (14.5.2009)

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• European Parliament elections, quality description (14.5.2009)

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Updated 14.5.2009