Image: Tom Bateman/ Yle News

Government parties took a drubbing in Finland’s parliamentary election on Sunday as Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s Centre Party polled its lowest general election result ever with just 13.8 percent of the vote to lose 13 seats with all votes counted, while hard-right populist Finns Party came second with 39 seats, just one behind the Social Democrats' 40.

Election result 2019 With 100% of vote counted: SDP 40 seats FP 39 NCP 38 CEN 31 GREENS 20 LEFT 16 SPP 9 CD 5 BLUE 0 OTHERS 2

Coalition partner Blue Reform was obliterated, getting just one percent of the vote and no MPs, while the third government partner the National Coalition Party emerged from four years in power relatively unscathed to gain one seat and finish on 38 seats.

Sipilä, a former businessman, had promised to bring the efficiency of the private sector to government as prime minister. However his administration’s austerity policies and labour market experiments such as a contentious so-called activation model ruffled many feathers. Reacting to the results on Sunday, Sipilä said that the party was the evening’s biggest loser. "We are the biggest loser and that must be acknowledged. The people have spoken," he added.

A n upstart in the race according to media polls , the Finns Party made good on pre-election polling and staged a strong finish with 17.5 percent of the vote. Immigration hardliner and party chair Jussi Halla-aho had previously had said he wanted to take the party into the next government.

"We have made it very clear to everybody that we are open to cooperation with everyone but not at any cost," Halla-aho said. "We could not join a government which is not committed to reducing harmful immigration to Finland," he added.

Halla-aho a big vote puller

Halla-aho scored a double win for the Finns Party, as he emerged as the evening’s biggest vote magnet, attracting support from more than 30,000 voters.

The centre-left Social Democratic Party managed a razor thin lead over its rivals, snapping up 17.7 percent of ballots cast, one of its poorest election outcomes ever. But that was enough for the Social Democrats to increase their parliamentary presence by six seats to 40, likely giving the party the mandate to initiate government formation talks.

Party leader and former union boss Antti Rinne told Yle News that he is likely to focus on a few key issues in government. "I hope we can solve this unemployment situation we have in Finland nowadays. It’s pensions, students, and child families are not doing so well in Finland now," he noted.

The NCP ended the evening with 17 percent voter support, just trailing the populist Finns Party. The SDP and the NCP have not always seen eye-to-eye, but party chair Petteri Orpo did not rule out both parties cooperating in government.

"Of course it is possible if we find a common programme for the government. Our red lines are the economy. We want to keep public finances in balance and we want Finland to be an active member of the EU. And our main target is to get the unemployment rate to a Nordic level," Orpo told Yle News.

The election was a hotly-contested race in which no single party was able to harvest 20 percent or more votes -- a situation that analysts described as unusual. The outcome reflects what pundits are calling an increasingly fragmented political landscape in Finland.

"People are looking for options. They have not been satisfied and that’s why we have seen the growth of support for the Finns Party and the Greens," said political commentator Sini Korpinen, a frequent contributor to Yle News’ All Points North podcast.

"The age when three big parties take turns in government or in opposition are over. It’s time for politicians to figure out how to make things work," she added.

2019 records: Early voting, women make gains

This year a record number of people -- more than 1.5 million or 36.1 percent of the electorate -- opted to cast their ballots early during advance voting. Early voting activity increased by about four percent compared to the previous general election.

The overall voter turnout was 72 percent, up from 70 percent in the last general election in 2015. Korpinen told Yle that the outcome reflects the highly polarised nature of the election. "It’s going to be very hard to negotiate a government, maybe the hardest ever. Anything can happen."

The election has seated a record number of female MPs in the Finnish parliament. This year women will take up 92 positions as lawmakers, up from the previous record of 85 in 2011. In addition, this year saw more women than ever among the top vote-getters.

One of Finland’s new vote magnets was NCP MP Elina Lepomäki, whom punters see as a contender for party chair when party delegates meet to elect a new party leader in 2020.

Overall, around 60 foreign-background candidates vied for seats in the election, according to Statistics Finland.

Edit: Updated at 1.02am to reflect final result with all votes counted.</s>Finland’s leftist Social Democrats have recorded a razor-thin victory in general elections, holding off the far-right Finns Party. With 100% of ballots counted, the Social Democrats, led by Antti Rinne, bagged 40 seats in the 200-member Parliament, while the Finns Party picked up 39 seats. The National Coalition Party claimed 38 seats, with the ruling Centre Party winning 31 seats. The remaining seats were won by other parties.

The Social Democrats will head a government for the first time in 16 years, though it has been a junior coalition member since then.</s>The Social Democrats pick 40 seats in parliament, only 0.2 percentage points ahead of far-right Finns Party

HELSINKI, Finland – Finland's leftist Social Democrats won a razor-thin victory in Sunday's, April 14, general election, holding off the far-right Finns Party which surged on an anti-immigration agenda.

With 100% of ballots counted, the Social Democrats, led by 56-year-old former trade union boss Antti Rinne, picked up 40 seats in parliament, after campaigning on a ticket of fierce opposition to the austerity imposed by the previous center-right government of Prime Minister Juha Sipila.

Meanwhile the Finns Party, which won 39 seats, had focused almost entirely on an anti-immigration agenda under the leadership of hardline MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who also decried the "climate hysteria" of the other parties.

Only 0.2 percentage points separated the two parties – in a heavily splintered political landscape where the Social Democrats were the biggest party with 17.7 percent of votes.

They will head a government for the first time in 16 years, though it has been a junior coalition member since then.

The Finns Party has seen a surge in support in recent months, urging people to "Vote for some borders" and pledging to reduce Finland's asylum intake to "almost zero".

It more than doubled its presence in parliament, from 17 seats to 39, and regained all of the ground it lost when more than half of Finns Party MPs fled the party in 2017 on the election of hardline leader Jussi Halla-aho.

During the campaign, most parties expressed strong reservations about sharing a government platform with Halla-aho's party, while stopping short of ruling it out entirely.

Finnish governments are typically a coalition of three or four parties that form the minimum 101-seat majority in parliament.

The Social Democrats' Antti Rinne has previously said his party would find it "very difficult" to enter a coalition with the Finns Party.

But after declaring victory on Sunday, Rinne did not rule out a collaboration, saying he "has questions" for the party.

"Some of the questions will be about values," Rinne told Finnish media. "The Social Democratic Party's values are very important, it's the glue that will hold the government together."

Rinne could also choose to form a coalition with the conservative National Coalition party, which came in third with 38 seats.

Although the two parties have repeatedly clashed over the conservatives' austerity policies during the last 4 years, political commentator Sini Korpinen told AFP the pair would more than likely choose to collaborate in order to keep the Finns Party in opposition.

"It's very hard to see that the other parties would say no to the Social Democrats, because then we would be in a situation with Halla-aho trying to form a government and I just don't see that happening," Korpinen said.

Outgoing Prime Minister Juha Sipila said his Centre Party was the election's "biggest loser", blaming the "difficult economic decisions" his administration made in an attempt to rebalance the economy after a long slump.

Voter turnout of 72% was higher than the 70.1 percent who voted in 2015.

The current government's cuts to Finland's prized education system, and a tightening of unemployment benefit criteria, had provoked loud and widespread public opposition.

Rinne has been a staunch opponent of the National Coalition's austerity policies over the past four years.

And Petteri Orpo, leader of the conservative National Coalition Party and co-architect of the government's savings programme, has denounced the Social Democratic Party's anti-austerity plans as "irresponsible".

However, in a tacit acknowledgement that the public mood was against further belt-tightening, Orpo has insisted that the economy is now strong enough to allow for some more generous public spending.

Opinion polls had suggested the Social Democrats' lead was narrowing towards the end of their campaign, with some blaming Rinne's inability to attract large numbers of new, younger voters.

The growing Finns Party ratings, on the other hand, appeared to be driven by new supporters who have not voted in the past.

Finns Party leader Halla-aho sought to dispel accusations that he hoped to keep his party in opposition after the election, so as to avoid facing the tough decisions of being in power.

On Sunday he said his party was open to being in a coalition "but not at any cost".

The Finns Party does have previous experience of being in government, when they became the second-largest party in the 2015 election.

But that led to the group splitting acrimoniously when its popularity spiralled following unpopular compromises on immigration and EU bailouts.

The hardline faction, led by Halla-aho, went into opposition in 2017, and the party took a further lurch to the right. – Rappler.com</s>Finland's center-left Social Democratic Party was on pace to narrowly win parliamentary elections on Sunday, according to preliminary results after more than 95% of votes were counted.

The outcome appeared to give Social Democratic leader Antti Rinne, a former finance minister, the task of finding coalition partners to form the first left-leaning government in two decades.

What are the results?
• The Social Democratic Party emerged with 17.8% support after campaigning against austerity imposed by the outgoing center-right government.
• The nationalist-populist Finns Party came second place at 17.6%.
• The conservative National Coalition Party, which is in the outgoing center-right governing coalition, was garnering more than 17% of the vote.
• Prime Minister Juha Sipila's Center Party looked set to finish in fourth place with just over 15%.

Social Democrat leader Rinne said: "For the first time since 1999 we are the largest party in Finland ... SDP is the prime minister party."

"Let us, my friends, take the Finnish society toward sustainable climate, social and economic policies," he told supporters.

Prime Minister Juha Sipila offered congratulations to the opposition after his Center Party suffered heavily at the polls.

"The Center Party is the biggest loser in these elections. This result is a big disappointment for us. I want to congratulate the winners," he said.
• The Social Democrats are projected to win 40 seats in the 200-seat legislature, six more than in the 2015 elections.
• The Finns Party was tipped to win 39 seats. It won the same number in 2015, before a split that saw more than half of the party’s lawmakers leave the parliamentary group.
• The National Coalition Party, which looks set to come in third, is projected to hold on to its 37 seats.
• The Center Party appears set to have the fourth biggest share of the vote, shedding 17 seats and dropping to 32.
• The Greens and the Left Alliance were on track to win 20 and 16 seats, respectively.
• Voter turnout was projected to be about 72 percent, higher than the 70.1 percent who voted in 2015.

Finland is set to take over the rotating EU presidency on July 1. European capitals were watching the performance of the Finns Party, which saw its support surge in the run-up to the vote. Many observers expect similar euroskeptic and nationalist parties make strong gains in next month's EU parliamentary elections. The Finns Party party is part of a nationalist bloc of European parties aiming to challenge EU policies on migration, security, family and environment.

What were the dominant campaign issues?

Welfare: Sipila's outgoing center-right coalition had sought to implement a health care and social care reform plan, but failed to get it through the legislature. It also implemented unpopular welfare cuts in an attempt to reinvigorate the economy. Rinne advocated for increasing taxes and spending to preserve health and social benefits and a world-class education system.

Read more: Finland keeps crown as world's happiest country

Immigration: Only 6.6% of the population is foreign-born, the lowest rate in Western Europe. Until recently, immigration was only a minor election issue. However, the Finns Party has attracted voters from small towns and villages worried about the issue, especially following highly publicized incidents of alleged sexual assaults by migrants last year. Other party leaders have cautioned against anti-immigrant rhetoric and generalizations about migrants. Rinne supports moderate work-related immigration and taking in some asylum-seekers.

Climate change: Most parties support efforts to combat climate change, but they differed during the campaign on how far to go and at what cost. The Finns Party used the debate as a wedge issue to attract voters skeptical of the costs of further action.

Read more: Climate protection - here do the EU's right-wing populists stand?</s>The Latest on Finland's parliamentary election (all times local):

The chairman of the populist Finns Party says he was truly surprised at how his party performed in Finland's parliamentary election.

A complete count of votes from Sunday's election had the euroskeptic party winning 39 seats in the 200-seat Finnish legislature, one fewer than the center-left Social Democratic Party that received the most votes.

Finns Party chairman Jussi Halla-aho also received the most votes by far of any candidate who ran for the Eduskunta legislature. Finnish media are suggesting that could put him in the role of kingmaker in the next government.

An elated Halla-aho called it a "day of joy" and said: "I certainly could never have expected a result like this. Honestly speaking, none of us expected this kind of result."

The leader of Finland's center-left Social Democratic Party vowed to focus on climate and social policies after election results indicated his party won the most seats in parliament.

Antti Rinne, a former union leader and former finance minister, celebrated with supporters at an election party in central Helsinki.

He called on them to "take the Finnish society toward a sustainable climate, social and economic policies."

With 99 percent of the votes counted, the Social Democrats appeared to have won 40 seats, just edging out the populist euroskeptic Finns party, which got 39.

Rinne also told them: "I have to make a honest confession: I hoped still for a better result."

Election returns in Finland indicate the Social Democratic Party was the top vote-getter in the country's parliamentary election, trailed closely by the populist euroskeptic Finns Party.

With 90% of ballots counted on Sunday night, the Social Democrats had won 40 seats in the 200-member parliament and the Finns Party 39.

The preliminary returns gave the conservative National Coalition Party 37 seats and the Center Party that was senior partner in the outgoing government 32.

The Finns Party has gained momentum among rural voters and others who find the climate change proposals of other political parties too daunting.

The leader of Finland's center-left Social Democratic Party says he expects the rest of election night in a two-way contest with the conservative National Coalition Party.

Antti Rinne, said Sunday night the Social Democrats held a small lead after most ballots cast in advance were counted: "It's a thrilling situation. It seems to me this will be a race between us and the NCP."

National Coalition Party leader Petteri Orpo predicted that postelection talks on forming the next Finnish government will be difficult because "whoever comes out first will face hard time in working out a government program."

The Social Democratic Party had 18.9% of the uncompleted tally of advance votes and the National Coalition Party wasn't far behind with 17.2%

Early returns from Finland's parliamentary election have the center-left Social Democratic Party in first place and the conservative National Coalition Party not far behind with most of the ballots that were cast in advance already counted.

Initial results from the pool of 1.5 million advance votes, representing 36% of eligible voters, were published minutes after he polls from Sunday's election closed.

The Social Democratic Party had 18.9% percent of advance votes from the uncompleted tally and the National Coalition Party 17.2%.

Outgoing Prime Minister Juha Sipila's Center Party and the populist Finns Party were close with 15.4% and 15.1% respectively.

Officials said some 300,000 advance votes remained uncounted when polls closed at 1700GMT.

The leader of Finland's center-left Social Democratic Party says he hasn't ruled out having the populist Finns Party as a governing coalition partner, but its differing "value base" is an obstacle.

Social Democratic leader Antti Rinne told reporters after voting Sunday in a municipality north of Finland's capital of Helsinki: "I have not closed out the Finns Party. I have said that if we're the first party, we are going to ask all parties the same questions."

Rinne said his values "differ very much" from those of the chairman of the euroskeptic, anti-immigrant Finns, Jussi Halla-aho.

He said" 'That's a big question for me. We need to have a government where there is the same value base."

Polls before the parliamentary election predicted the Social Democrats would place first with voter support of 19%-21%. The polls had the Finns Party coming in second or third with 15%-16% of the vote.

While the debate over climate change has dominated the campaign for Finland's parliamentary election, the populist Finns Party disagrees with other main parties on what measures to take.

Finns Party leader Jussi Halla-aho told reporters at a Helsinki polling station Sunday that "we want a more moderate and sensible climate policy that does not chase industries away from Finland to countries like China."

The Finns Party, which ahead of Sunday's vote has been polling in second place behind the opposition Social Democrats, has been gaining momentum among rural voters and others who find the climate change proposals of other political parties too daunting.

Some of those proposals include boosting the number of electric vehicles, cutting meat consumption through taxes and switching to more vegetarian food in public places like schools.

Greenpeace is calling the parliamentary vote in Finland the "climate election," saying that "never before has climate and the limits of planet Earth been discussed with such seriousness in Finland."

Sunday's vote in the European Union member of 5.5 million people is taking place in a Nordic country that has one-third of its land above the Arctic Circle and where climate policy has emerged as a key election topic.

Voter Sofia Frantsi, 27, an architect from Helsinki, told The Associated Press "for everybody, it's about the climate. It's kind of a climate election."

Greens lawmaker Emma Kari told the AP that "it's clear a vast majority of Finns is hoping the new parliament takes climate action."

Voters were choosing between 2,500 candidates from 19 political parties and movements for the Eduskunta legislature's 200 seats.

Voters in Finland are casting ballots in a parliamentary election after fierce debates over how best to tackle climate change dominated the campaign, even overshadowing topics like reforming the nation's generous welfare model.

Sunday's vote in the European Union member of 5.5 million people is taking place in a Nordic country that has one-third of its territory above the Arctic Circle.

The center-left Social Democratic Party tops a recent poll with 19% support. The populist Finns Party, however, is polling in second place with 16% support and has been gathering momentum among voters who find the climate change sacrifices proposed by other political parties too daunting.

Some 36% of eligible voters have already cast their ballot in advance, choosing between 2,500 candidates from 19 political parties and movements for the Eduskunta legislature's 200 seats.</s>The Latest on Finland's parliamentary election (all times local):

Election returns in Finland indicate the Social Democratic Party was the top vote-getter in the country's parliamentary election, trailed closely by the populist euroskeptic Finns Party.

With 90% of ballots counted on Sunday night, the Social Democrats had won 40 seats in the 200-member parliament and the Finns Party 39.

The preliminary returns gave the conservative National Coalition Party 37 seats and the Center Party that was senior partner in the outgoing government 32.

The Finns Party has gained momentum among rural voters and others who find the climate change proposals of other political parties too daunting.

The leader of Finland's center-left Social Democratic Party says he expects the rest of election night in a two-way contest with the conservative National Coalition Party.

Antti Rinne, said Sunday night the Social Democrats held a small lead after most ballots cast in advance were counted: "It's a thrilling situation. It seems to me this will be a race between us and the NCP."

National Coalition Party leader Petteri Orpo predicted that postelection talks on forming the next Finnish government will be difficult because "whoever comes out first will face hard time in working out a government program."

The Social Democratic Party had 18.9% of the uncompleted tally of advance votes and the National Coalition Party wasn't far behind with 17.2%

Early returns from Finland's parliamentary election have the center-left Social Democratic Party in first place and the conservative National Coalition Party not far behind with most of the ballots that were cast in advance already counted.

Initial results from the pool of 1.5 million advance votes, representing 36% of eligible voters, were published minutes after he polls from Sunday's election closed.

The Social Democratic Party had 18.9% percent of advance votes from the uncompleted tally and the National Coalition Party 17.2%.

Outgoing Prime Minister Juha Sipila's Center Party and the populist Finns Party were close with 15.4% and 15.1% respectively.

Officials said some 300,000 advance votes remained uncounted when polls closed at 1700GMT.

The leader of Finland's center-left Social Democratic Party says he hasn't ruled out having the populist Finns Party as a governing coalition partner, but its differing "value base" is an obstacle.

Social Democratic leader Antti Rinne told reporters after voting Sunday in a municipality north of Finland's capital of Helsinki: "I have not closed out the Finns Party. I have said that if we're the first party, we are going to ask all parties the same questions."

Rinne said his values "differ very much" from those of the chairman of the euroskeptic, anti-immigrant Finns, Jussi Halla-aho.

He said" 'That's a big question for me. We need to have a government where there is the same value base."

Polls before the parliamentary election predicted the Social Democrats would place first with voter support of 19%-21%. The polls had the Finns Party coming in second or third with 15%-16% of the vote.

While the debate over climate change has dominated the campaign for Finland's parliamentary election, the populist Finns Party disagrees with other main parties on what measures to take.

Finns Party leader Jussi Halla-aho told reporters at a Helsinki polling station Sunday that "we want a more moderate and sensible climate policy that does not chase industries away from Finland to countries like China."

The Finns Party, which ahead of Sunday's vote has been polling in second place behind the opposition Social Democrats, has been gaining momentum among rural voters and others who find the climate change proposals of other political parties too daunting.

Some of those proposals include boosting the number of electric vehicles, cutting meat consumption through taxes and switching to more vegetarian food in public places like schools.

Greenpeace is calling the parliamentary vote in Finland the "climate election," saying that "never before has climate and the limits of planet Earth been discussed with such seriousness in Finland."

Sunday's vote in the European Union member of 5.5 million people is taking place in a Nordic country that has one-third of its land above the Arctic Circle and where climate policy has emerged as a key election topic.

Voter Sofia Frantsi, 27, an architect from Helsinki, told The Associated Press "for everybody, it's about the climate. It's kind of a climate election."

Greens lawmaker Emma Kari told the AP that "it's clear a vast majority of Finns is hoping the new parliament takes climate action."

Voters were choosing between 2,500 candidates from 19 political parties and movements for the Eduskunta legislature's 200 seats.

Voters in Finland are casting ballots in a parliamentary election after fierce debates over how best to tackle climate change dominated the campaign, even overshadowing topics like reforming the nation's generous welfare model.

Sunday's vote in the European Union member of 5.5 million people is taking place in a Nordic country that has one-third of its territory above the Arctic Circle.

The center-left Social Democratic Party tops a recent poll with 19% support. The populist Finns Party, however, is polling in second place with 16% support and has been gathering momentum among voters who find the climate change sacrifices proposed by other political parties too daunting.

Some 36% of eligible voters have already cast their ballot in advance, choosing between 2,500 candidates from 19 political parties and movements for the Eduskunta legislature's 200 seats.</s>The opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) on Sunday narrowly beat the ultrarightist Finns Party in Finland's parliamentary elections.

With 99.3 percent of the ballots counted, the SDP, headed by former union leader Antti Rinne, obtained 17.7 percent of the votes and 40 seats in Parliament, while the anti-immigration Finns Party - who are also in the opposition - obtained 17.5 percent of the votes and 39 seats.</s>With 100 per cent of ballots counted, the Social Democrats, led by 56-year-old former trade union boss Antti Rinne, picked up 40 seats in parliament, after campaigning on a ticket of fierce opposition to the austerity imposed by the previous centre-right government of Prime Minister Juha Sipila.

Meanwhile the Finns Party, which won 39 seats, had focused almost entirely on an anti-immigration agenda under the leadership of hardline MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who also decried the “climate hysteria” of the other parties.

It more than doubled its presence in parliament, from 17 seats to 39, and regained all of the ground it lost when more than half of Finns Party MPs fled the party in 2017 on the election of hardline leader Jussi Halla-aho.

Although the two parties have repeatedly clashed over the conservatives’ austerity policies during the last four years, political commentator Sini Korpinen told AFP the pair would more than likely choose to collaborate in order to keep the Finns Party in opposition.

“It’s very hard to see that the other parties would say no to the Social Democrats, because then we would be in a situation with Halla-aho trying to form a government and I just don’t see that happening,” Korpinen said.

However, in a tacit acknowledgement that the public mood was against further belt-tightening, Orpo has insisted that the economy is now strong enough to allow for some more generous public spending.

Finns Party leader Halla-aho sought to dispel accusations that he hoped to keep his party in opposition after the election, so as to avoid facing the tough decisions of being in power.</s>The party has announced 408 candidates, which is 20 fewer than its tally of 428 in 2014. The Congress, on the other hand, has fielded candidates for 271 seats.

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded the most number of candidates so far compared to other parties for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Sources said that the party may contest the highest number of Lok Sabha seats in its history. The party has so far announced 408 candidates, which is 20 fewer than its tally of 428 in 2014. The Congress, on the other hand, has fielded candidates for 271 seats. Other parties have not even crossed three digits as far as number of candidates is concerned.

BJP sources said that the party is likely to announce at least 30 more candidates. In that case, the party will be contesting the highest number of Lok Sabha seats.

There are 543 seats in the Lok Sabha. According to BJP sources, the party had fielded 433 seats in 2009, 364 in 2004 and 339 seats in 1999 elections.

The BJP is yet to announce its seven candidates for Delhi. The announcement was delayed as part of the wait-and-watch strategy amid seat-sharing talks between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress. The party has also not announced another eight candidates for Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha.

Similarly, party sources said that it is yet to finalise names for eight seats in Madhya Pradesh, including Indore and Bhopal. In Punjab, no decision has been taken on the candidates for the three seats it will contest in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Similar is the case in Haryana and Rajasthan where two seats and one seat respectively are pending.

The number of BJP candidates is higher because the party has no alliances in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana this time around. Last time, the party had allied with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and contested on only 12 seats. However, in this election, the party is contesting all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Interestingly, however, the BJP is contesting on lesser number of seats in Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam because of alliances.

In terms of alliances also, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is larger compared to United Progressive Alliance (UPA). The NDA has 38 small and big parties out of which about 20 are in electoral fray, whereas the UPA has only 16 parties. The BJP has left about 110 seats for its alliance partners.</s>Finland’s Social Democrats won a narrow victory in Sunday's parliamentary election — the first such win for the center-left party in two decades.

The result was extremely tight, with the Social Democrats securing 17.7 percent of the vote, compared to the far-right Finns Party finishing second at 17.5 percent, with nearly all votes counted.

Outgoing Prime Minister Juha Sipilä's Center Party finished fourth with 13.8 percent, while the center-right National Coalition Party (NCP) — the Center Party's junior government partner — finished in third place with 17 percent support.

The Social Democrats fared worse than expected, with polls leading up to the vote showing they could win as much as 19 percent, but their margin puts party leader Antti Rinne, a 56-year-old former trade union leader, in pole position to succeed Sipilä, who has led the Nordic state of 5.5 million since 2015.

Finnish convention dictates the leader of the biggest party in parliament gets to take the first shot at forming a government.

Even if its performance was weaker than polls predicted, the Finnish Social Democrats’ victory represents a rare success in Europe for left-of-center parties, which have struggled with waning support in countries such as France, Germany and Italy in recent years.

The outcome was also further evidence the political left is enjoying something of a revival in its Nordic heartland, even if it remains well short of its former glory. Left-leaning prime ministers now have the reins in Iceland and Sweden, and the Social Democrats lead in polls in Denmark ahead of an election there this summer. Norway’s Labor Party won the most votes in the last election two years ago, but failed to form a coalition that could take power.

As the Finnish results came in, Rinne said the Social Democrats’ success was due to the large team they deployed over two years to lead a discussion about the challenges facing Finland and how they would address them.

“A lot of the issues raised have been our strong questions, like health care and education, questions which are key for the future,” Rinne said.

However, it's not clear with whom the Social Democrats might seek to team up to form a government. The smaller Greens and the Left Party could be likely allies, but the Social Democrats could also choose either the Center Party or the NCP, according to analysts.

Negotiations with the latter two could be difficult as they have entrenched differences on fiscal policy, including key areas like tax.

Meanwhile, the success of the Finns Party mirrored a wider European trend of success for far-right and populist parties that advocate tougher migration policies and border controls.

Analysts said the Finns Party’s recent rapid rise in the polls was in part driven by a return of the debate over immigration after a a number of foreign-born men were accused of sexual abuse in the city of Oulu earlier this year.

The election campaign leading up to the vote was in many ways a traditional left-right battle.

Rinne said he was prepared to raise taxes to fund public services and his campaign message often focused on supporting the weakest members of society and reducing inequality. Meanwhile, rival Sipilä’s attempts at cost-cutting and privatization foundered amid a public outcry and stiff opposition in parliament. In March, Sipilä resigned as prime minister after abandoning plans for an overhaul of social welfare and health care. He stayed on as prime minister in a caretaker capacity.

Teivo Teivainen, a political scientist at Helsinki University, suggested the issue of elderly care had been a decisive issue in the run-up to the election.

A scandal in January over poor performance at privately-run care homes became a lightning rod for concerns over Sipilä’s reform efforts. It also damaged the prospects of his government ally the NCP, which has been the main advocate of the privatization of such services.

Media coverage of the case created an image of greedy corporations putting profit before the needs of the elderly, Teivainen said.

“It was a blow of moral outrage that was no way to recover from before the election," he said.

Climate change also proved a central issue on the campaign trail. The Greens pushed the hardest for ramping up Finland’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions, among other things, and set a date of 2030 by which the country should be carbon neutral. They secured 11.5 percent support, finishing in fifth place.

Rinne waited until late into the evening before declaring victory.

"After 20 years it looks like we are the biggest party and we are on our way to claim the prime minister’s position,” he said.
Social Democratic Party takes a narrow victory with 40 seats, while Finns Party comes close second with 39 seats.