When the Socialist Electoral League was founded in the early 1970s, the party won voters from the Labour Party, which ruled as a majority government. Early speculation said that the Labour Party had lost 100,000 votes to the Electoral League. The Socialist Left Party gained 16 seats in Parliament. After the unification process was finished, the party's voter base collapsed and they earned only 4.2% of the national vote in the 1977 parliamentary election, and earned only two seats in parliament. After the election, the party won new voters, and in the 1989 parliamentary election, it gathered 10.1% of the national vote. After the election, the party lost voters again, and after the 1997 election, the party mustered 9 representatives in parliament.