COPENHAGEN, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- Denmark's opposition Social Democrats party has made big gains in Tuesday's local elections, official data showed on Wednesday.
With all votes counted, the Social Democrats party headed by Mette Frederiksen gained 32.5 percent of votes, up three percentage points from the 29.5 percent in the 2013 elections, while the ruling Liberal Party saw support rate declining from 26.6 percent to 24.1 percent.
Meanwhile, the four biggest Danish cities' administration still remains under the control of Social Democrats.
Frank Jensen from Social Democrats succeeded in re-election for the mayor of Copenhagen, the capital of the country. Copenhagen has only had a social democrat mayor since the position was created in 1938.
The five regional councils election around Denmark was also held on Tuesday. Welfare and healthcare are the main focuses of regional councils. Social Democrats grasped four out of five regional council chairman posts, while the Liberal Party gained only one.
Despite the election defeat, Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said on Tuesday night that he was satisfied with the result.
"Everything suggests that we have had a sound election. Looking at the percentages we are at pretty much the same level as we had last time, where we got around a quarter of the votes," said Rasmussen.
The voter turnout was 70.8 percent, slightly lower than the record high of 71.9 percent in 2013.
On Tuesday, Danes went to 1,387 polling stations across the country to elect representatives of local parliaments and city councils.
More than 11,000 candidates contested 2,432 seats in 98 municipal councils and 205 seats in five regional councils through two elections on the same day.
