2003 Finnish parliamentary election

2003 Finnish parliamentary election

← 1999 16 March 2003 2007 →
All 200 seats in Parliament 101 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	66.7%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Anneli Jäätteenmäki Paavo Lipponen Ville Itälä Party Centre SDP National Coalition Last election 48 seats, 22.4% 51 seats, 22.9% 46 seats, 21.0% Seats won 55 53 40 Seat change 7 2 6 Popular vote 689,391 683,223 517,904 Percentage 24.7% 24.5% 18.6% Swing 2.3pp 1.6pp 2.4pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Suvi-Anne Siimes Osmo Soininvaara Bjarne Kallis Party Left Alliance Green KD Last election 20 seats, 10.9% 11 seats, 7.3% 10 seats, 5.34% Seats won 19 14 7 Seat change 1 3 3 Popular vote 277,152 223,564 148,987 Percentage 9.9% 8.0% 5.3% Swing 1.0pp 0.7pp 1.1pp   Seventh party Eighth party   Leader Jan-Erik Enestam Timo Soini Party RKP Finns Last election 11 seats, 5.1% 1 seat, 1.0% Seats won 8 3 Seat change 3 2 Popular vote 128,824 43,816 Percentage 4.6% 1.6% Swing 0.5pp 0.6pp
Prime Minister before election Paavo Lipponen SDP Prime Minister after election Anneli Jäätteenmäki Centre

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Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 16 March 2003.^[1] The Centre Party led by Anneli Jäätteenmäki overtook the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to become the largest party in the Eduskunta. This was credited mainly to Jäätteenmäki's powerful leadership and modernization of the party still often viewed as agrarian and conservative by many. However, the SDP actually won some seats and increased its share of the vote, losing in the number of total popular votes only by a few thousand.

The Green League achieved its best results ever, but the Swedish People's Party suffered losses. The Christian Democrats gained votes but lost seats. This was partly because in 1999 and before Christian Democrats had been in an election coalition with Centre Party and benefited from this, while the Centre Party had lost seats due to the arrangement, and thus discontinued it starting from 2003. The Left Alliance continued its slow decline, while the small populist Finns Party did not do as well as some had expected.