Finnish parliamentary election, 1929
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Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 1 and 2 July 1929.
Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An expe ...
& Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p606
The result was a victory for the Agrarian League, which won 60 of the 200 seats in Parliament. Voter turnout was 55.6%.


Background

President Relander, an Agrarian, believed that the Finnish civil servants should get a pay raise, after a long period of frozen salaries, that had caused them to lose a significant amount of purchasing power. Most of his fellow Agrarians opposed him and the Progressive minority government of Prime Minister Mantere on this issue, arguing that the civil servants, on average, were still clearly better paid than the agricultural workers. After the Finnish Parliament rejected the government's legislative proposal on the increase of civil servants' salaries in April 1929, President Relander dissolved Parliament and called early elections for July. The Agrarians and Communists campaigned on the rejection of the civil servants' proposed salary increases, and both parties gained seats. The National Coalitioners and Progressives who favoured the salary increases suffered a defeat. President Relander was displeased by the Agrarians' victory, because he could not get along well with their leader, Mr. Kallio, but he reluctantly appointed Kallio as Prime Minister of an Agrarian minority government after the elections.Sakari Virkkunen, Finland's Presidents I / Suomen presidentit I, Helsinki: WSOY, 1994


Results


References

{{Finnish elections General elections in Finland Finland Parliament Finland Election and referendum articles with incomplete results