At stake in this election:      

• 179 seats in the Parliament (Folketinget)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: Queen MARGRETHE II
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Helle THORNING-SCHMIDT
• Assembly: Denmark has a unicameral Parliament (Folketinget) with 179 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The Queen is the hereditary head of state.
• The Prime Minister is appointed by the monarch.
• In the Parliament (Folketinget), 135 members are elected by open list proportional representation in multi-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms*, 40 members are elected by open list proportional representation in multi-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms* and 4 members are elected by open list proportional representation in multi-member constituencies to serve 4-year* terms.**

*The Prime Minister may, however, call for new elections at any time.   

** There are three electoral regions in Denmark: Metropolitan Copenhagen, Sealand-Southern Denmark, and Northern and Central Jutland. 17 multi-member constituencies are divided among these regions. Also, a share of compensatory seats proportional to its population is allocated to each electoral region.

First, constituency seats are allocated to each party in proportion to its share of votes. Parties become eligible for compensatory seats if they meet any of three conditions: winning a constituency seat, winning in two of three regions shares of votes equal to or greater than the number of votes cast per individual seat in each region, or winning two percent of votes nationwide.

Next, compensatory seats are allocated to each party to make its overall vote share effectively equal to its overall seat share. The first step here is allocating compensatory seats to each electoral region. The Sainte-Lague procedure is applied to each party's region-level vote share. Quotients resulting from this procedure that correspond to constituency seats are disregarded. The 40 compensatory seats go to the party-regions with the 40 largest remaining quotients. The second step is allocating these party-region seats to constituencies. A second, similar quotient procedure is applied at the constituency level. Disregarding quotients corresponding to party seats already won in the constituency tier, party-region seats are allocated to parties within constituencies from highest to lowest party-constituency quotient, until all compensatory seats are exhausted.

The end result of these processes is a number of seats to be allocated to each eligible party at the constituency level. The electoral system is open-list proportional representation, but parties may opt to field closed lists.

For a fuller overview, please read this overview of the “Parliamentary Electoral System in Denmark.”

Main parties in the electoral race[1][2]:

• Party: Left, Liberal Party of Denmark (V) / Venstre, Danmarks Liberale Parti
• Leader: Lars Løkke RASMUSSEN
• Seats won in last election: 47
• Current number of MPs: 47
• Party: Social Democratic Party (SD) / Socialdemokraterne/Socialdemokratiet
• Leader: Helle THORNING-SCHMIDT
• Seats won in last election: 44
• Current number of MPs: 47
• Party: Danish People's Party / Dansk Folkeparti (DF)
• Leader: Kristian Thulesen DAHL
• Seats won in last election: 22
• Current number of MPs: 22
• Party: Conservative People's Party / Det Konservative Folkeparti (KF)
• Leader: Søren Pape POULSEN
• Seats won in last election: 8
• Current number of MPs: 8
• Party: Danish Social Liberal Party (RV) / Radikale Venstre
• Leader: Morten ØSTERGAARD
• Seats won in last election: 17
• Current number of MPs: 17
• Party: Socialist People's Party (SF) / Socialistisk Folkeparti
• Leader: Pia Olsen DYHR
• Seats won in last election: 16
• Current number of MPs: 12
• Party: Unity List-Red Green Alliance / Enhedslisten – De Rød-Grønne
• Leader: N/A
• Seats won in last election: 12
• Current number of MPs: 12
• Party: Liberal Alliance / Liberal Alliance
• Leader: Anders SAMUELSEN
• Seats won in last election: 9
• Current number of MPs: 9
• Party: The Alternative / Alternativet
• Leader: Uffe ELBÆK
• Seats won in last election: N/A
• Current number of MPs: 1
• Party: Inuit Ataqatigiit
• Leader: Sara OLSVIG
• Seats won in last election: N/A
• Current number of MPs: 1
• Party: Siumut
• Leader: Kim KIELSEN
• Seats won in last election: N/A
• Current number of MPs: 1
• Party: Sambandsflokkurin
• Leader: Kaj Leo JOHANNESEN
• Seats won in last election: N/A
• Current number of MPs: 1
• Party: Javnaðarflokkurin
• Leader: Askel V. JOHANNESEN
• Seats won in last election: N/A
• Current number of MPs: 1

Last election:

• The last election for the Parliament (Folketinget) was held on 15 September 2011.  There were 4,079,910 registered voters for the election.  The Left, Liberal Party of Denmark won 47 seats (of 179) or 26.73% of the vote, the Social Democratic Party won 44 seats (24.81% of the vote), the Danish People's Party won 22 seats (12.32% of the vote), the Danish Social Liberal Party won 17 seats (9.50% of the vote), the Socialist People's Party won 16 seats (9.20% of the vote), the Unity List-Red-Green Alliance won 12 seats (6.68% of the vote), the Liberal Alliance won 9 seats (4.98% of the vote), and the Conservative People's Party won 8 seats (4.94% of the vote).  Results can be found here. 

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 5,569,077 (2014 est.)[3]
• Registered Voters: 4,079,910 (2011)[4]

Gender Data:

• Female Population: 2,823,851[5]
• Is Denmark a signatory to CEDAW: Yes (17 July 1980)
• Has Denmark ratified CEDAW: Yes (21 April 1983)[6]
• Gender Quota: No[7]
• Female Candidates in this election: Yes
• Number of Female Legislators: 70 (39%) of 179 seats in the Parliament[8]
• Human Development Index (HDI) Position: 10[9]
• Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: None[10]

Disability Data:

• Is Denmark a signatory to CRPD: Yes (30 March 2007)
• Has Denmark ratified CRPD: Yes (24 July 2009)[11]
• Population with a disability: 833,468[12]