How to vote in the Election

Photo of Election Day 2019

Four Main Elections in Finland

There are four main elections in Finland. The municipality, parliament, presidency, and the European Parliament Elections. In this article, we will focus on the municipal elections.

Municipal Elections

Municipal Elections are held every four years in April to elect the councilors of the municipalities. The number of councilors selected depends on the population of a municipality.

Voting Period

The advance voting period for the Municipality Elections starts on the 26th of May until the 8th of June. If you live abroad, it begins on the 2nd of May until the 5th of June. The general voting day will be on the 13th of June 2021, from 9:00 to 20:00.

Who can Vote?

A person who has turned 18 years old has the right to vote in the municipal election and is a citizen in Finland; belongs to another European Union member state, Iceland or Norway, and resides in the municipality by the 25th of February, 2021. You can also vote even though you are a citizen from another country but have lived in Finland continuously for more than two years.

How to vote

You will get an invitation to vote, but you do not need to bring it with you. You can see where you can vote on Election Day in the letter, but you can also vote in advance anywhere in your municipal area.

Instead, you can take your identification card, passport, driver's license, or another similar document. The election official will give you a ballot and show you to the polling booth.

In the polling booth, you can see the candidate's party, name, and number. Do not write or draw anything else but the number of the candidate on your ballot. If you are voting on Election Day, you will drop the ballot to the ballot box. If you vote in advance, you must seal the ballot that the election official has stamped.

What are the tasks of the councilors?

The chosen councilors will decide about municipal strategy, administrative provision, budget and financial plan, the principles of corporate governance and corporate guidelines, setting operational and financial objectives for business and among other things. The council must also ensure the participation and cooporation of the municipalities residence and service users.

Who to vote?

There are multiple election compass where you can find the best candidate with the same mission and goals in your municipality area. There are english version election compass where you need to answer a few questions from Yle and Nuorten vaalikone. You can also try the election compass in Finnish language from HS and Iltasanomat. MTV and Yle is also translated in russian, swedish and same languages.

You can always google vaalikone, where it will give you more options to vote.

Source: www.vaalit.fi/en