Övertorneå Municipality is a municipality in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden, bordering Finland. Its seat is located in Övertorneå. Until the Finnish War Övertorneå and the Finnish Ylitornio were a single parish. Following the war, the eastern part of the municipality was ceded to Russia as a part of Finland. In 1870a minor part of Övertorneå Municipality was split off, forming the rural municipalityKorpilombolo. In 1969 Övertorneå and Hietaniemi municipalities were merged, forming the present municipality. Many places in the municipality have both a Swedish and a Finnish name, in the localdialect of Finnish known as Meänkieli, one of the minority languages of Sweden.
Localities
There are four localities in Övertorneå Municipality:
These are the results of the elections to the Riksdag since the 1972 municipal reform. Norrbotten Party also contested the 1994 election but due to the party's small size at a nationwide level SCB did not publish the party's results at a municipal level. The same applies to the Sweden Democrats between 1988 and 1998. "Turnout" denotes the percentage of eligible voters casting any ballots, whereas "Votes" denotes the number of actual valid ballots cast.
Blocs This lists the relative strength of the socialist and centre-right blocs since 1973, but parties not elected to the Riksdag are inserted as "other", including the Sweden Democrats results from 1988 to 2006, but also the Christian Democrats pre-1991 and the Greens in 1982, 1985 and 1991. The sources are identical to the table above. The coalition or government mandate marked in bold formed the government after the election. New Democracy got elected in 1991 but are still listed as "other" due to the short lifespan of the party.
Year
Turnout
Votes
Left
Right
SD
Other
Elected
1973
89.4
4,174
57.1
40.8
0.0
2.1
97.9
1976
91.1
4,186
57.8
40.4
0.0
1.9
98.1
1979
91.2
4,147
56.7
38.9
0.0
4.4
95.6
1982
89.9
4,059
60.9
35.1
0.0
4.0
96.0
1985
88.0
3,950
61.6
38.0
0.0
0.4
99.6
1988
83.8
3,617
61.6
34.5
0.0
3.9
96.1
1991
83.0
3,536
57.0
38.8
0.0
4.2
98.7
1994
84.3
3,628
66.7
31.1
0.0
2.2
97.8
1998
80.5
3,357
64.3
34.0
0.0
1.7
98.3
2002
74.7
2,929
52.6
26.7
0.0
21.7
78.3
2006
74.9
2,785
58.3
35.4
0.0
6.3
93.7
2010
80.7
2,901
65.3
31.1
3.4
0.2
99.8
2014
80.5
2,733
60.5
27.6
11.0
0.9
99.1
Sights
Two old wooden churches in Övertorneå and Hedenäset. The church in Övertorneå has an organ from the 17th century. Juoksengi is intersected by the Arctic Circle and is known as the "Arctic Circle Village".
