Why several hundred 'True Finns' voted for the Communist Party

A huge and massive mistake made by several hundred supporters of the extreme right wing party of the True Finns is what may have caused this formation to be in second place -behind the winner Social Democratic Party (SDP)-, in the elections last Sunday. 

According to the information published by the Finnish local press, some 400 voters of the far-right in the electoral district of Uusimaa, the region surrounding Helsinki, would have voted involuntarily for the Communist Party of Finland (SKP). And this loss of support could have cost the True Finns their seat number 40 in the Finnish Parliament (Eduskunta), which would have equaled the Social Democrats.

98, the cursed number

The error had its origin when hundreds of voters in Usimaa wrote in their ballots the number 98, with which the leader of the extreme right attended the elections. However, these voters did not realize that Halla-aho was not in the elections for Uusimaa, but for the neighboring district of Helsinki.

That is how the communist Kalevi Wahrman (SKP), the candidate for Uusimaa who was assigned the number 98, received 483 votes, almost eleven times more than he had obtained in 2015. Despite this unexpected support, he was not elected for a seat in the Parliament.

A very tight result

The True Finns led by Jussi Halla-aho obtained last Sunday 39 seats in the Eduskunta, one less than the Social Democratic Party (SDP) led by the trade unionist Antti Rinne. A very tight result, since the Socialists only managed to surpass the True Finns with a narrow margin of 6,813 votes. The seat the far-right would have achieved if their voters had not been mistaken went to the conservatives.

Some followers of Halla-Aho later regretted on social media having made such a mistake in voting. And they specifically regretted for having given their support to the Communist Party, which is for them on the opposite end of Finnish politics.