Åland legislative election, 2007

The Åland Islands held legislative elections on 21 October, 2007 ^{[http://www.val.ax]} for the Lagting, the regional parliament of Åland. All 30 seats were up for election to four-year terms using proportional representation. The Åland Progress Group did not participate in the elections, as its sole member of the Lagting, Ronald Boman, opted to retire, while a new organisation, the HUT Group, unsuccessfully contested its first election.

A 2006 survey indicated that the Liberals for Åland would regain their status as the largest party in the Lagting, while the previously dominant Åland Centre would fall below 20% of the vote for the first time in its history. The Future of Åland, which supports the independence of Åland from Finland and was contesting its second election to the Lagting, would more than double its vote. A 2007 survey, on the other hand, indicated that the Åland Centre would remain the largest party in the Lagting.

Ultimately, two of the parties in the Landskapstyrelse, Freeminded Co-operation and the Åland Social Democrats, incurred heavy losses, with the Social Democrat representation in the Lagting being cut in half and Freeminded Co-operation falling below 10% of the votes for the first time in the party's history. The third party in the government, the Åland Centre, made narrow gains. The winner of the election was the Liberals for Åland, who reclaimed the mantle as the largest party and, for the first time in the party's history, crossed the 30% mark.
The significant losses for Freeminded Co-operation and the Social Democrats can be partially explained by discontent with the government, as well as the retirements of popular members of the Lagting Harriet Lindeman (Freeminded Co-operation) and Lasse Wiklöf (Social Democrats).The election also marked the return of former Åland member of the Finnish parliament and member of the Lagting Gunnar Jansson for the Liberals, who became the most popular candidate with 745 votes cast for him, or 5.6% of all votes cast in the election. Former member of the Lagting, Lantråd (premier of the government of Åland) and recently retired member of the Finnish parliament, Roger Jansson (Freeminded co-operation), while not receiving as many votes as Gunnar Jansson, also succeeded in being elected. ^{[http://www.jcimariehamn.ax/val2007/]}

Preliminary results

Election polls

{| class="wikitable"
-
style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left colspan=5|Survey by Ålands statistik- och utredningsbyrå, Autumn 2006
-
style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left width=350 rowspan=2|Parties!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right colspan=2|%!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right colspan=2|Seats

-!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Survey!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|+/- 2003!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Survey!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|+/- 2003

-
align=left|Liberals for Åland (Liberalerna på Åland)
align="right" | 24.0
align="right" | -0.1
align="right" | 8
align="right" | +1

-
align=left|Åland Centre (Ålands Center)
align="right" | 19.9
align="right" | -4.2
align="right" | 6
align="right" | -1

-
align=left|Åland Social Democrats (Ålands Socialdemokrater)
align="right" | 18.0
align="right" | -1.0
align="right" | 6
align="right" | 0

-
align=left|Freeminded Co-operation (Frisinnad Samverkan)
align="right" | 14.2
align="right" | +0.6
align="right" | 4
align="right" | 0

-
align=left|The Future of Åland (Ålands Framtid)
align="right" | 13.6
align="right" | +7.1
align="right" | 4
align="right" | +2

-
align=left|Non-aligned Rally (Obunden Samling)
align="right" | 6.5
align="right" | -2.9
align="right" | 2
align="right" | -1

-
align=left|Åland Progress Group (Ålands Framstegsgrupp)
align="right" | 1.3
align="right" | -2.1
align="right" | 0
align="right" | -1

-
align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Participants in the poll: ~1,140
width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|
width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|
width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|30
width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|
-
colspan=5 align=left|Source: [http://www.asub.ax/archive.con?iPage=12&art_id=441 ÅSUB]

External links

* [http://www.parties-and-elections.de/aland.html Parties and Elections in Europe]
* [http://www.lagtinget.ax/eng/elect.html Legislative Assembly elections]