Let your voice be heard

Munici­pal elec­tions will be held on 13 June 2021 in all the 293 munici­pa­li­ties in main­land Finland. The right to vote is also exten­ded to almost all people who live in Finland but who are not Finnish citizens.

12.5.2021

Munici­pa­li­ties decide on things like daycare, schools, traf­fic, public housing, cultu­ral services, sport faci­li­ties and to date health care, too. Deci­sions made by munici­pa­li­ties directly affect our daily life, work and environment.

In every munici­pa­lity, there is a munici­pal council ranging from 13 to 85 council­lors, depen­ding on the number of inha­bi­tants. All are directly elec­ted by voters.

On the actual elec­tion day you can vote at your local polling station. It is usually close by and speci­fied in the voting regis­ter card you receive before the elec­tions. To vote, you only need to produce an official photo ID.

It is also possible to vote in advance between 26 May and 8 June. The advance polling stations are loca­ted in places like libra­ries, shop­ping cent­res and munici­pal office buildings.

The vast majo­rity of adult people living in Finland have the right to vote in these elec­tions, under certain condi­tions, regard­less of their citizens­hip or country of origin.

If you are a Finnish citizen who has reac­hed the age of 18 on the elec­tion day at the latest and reside in Finland, you have the right to vote.

Howe­ver, if you are a citizen of the other 26 Euro­pean Union count­ries, Norway or Iceland and resi­ding in Finland, you can vote under the same condi­tions as Finnish citizens.

If you are a citizen of any other country than those mentio­ned above, you might still have the right to vote in the munici­pal elec­tions. For this you need to have been living in Finland for at least two years on the 51st day before the elec­tions. That is the day when the voting regis­ter is drafted.

No one needs to regis­ter sepa­ra­tely to get on the voting regis­ter. Lists are auto­ma­tically upda­ted, based on the Finnish Popu­la­tion Infor­ma­tion System. Once your perso­nal data is recor­ded in this system, it will be regis­te­red and you should you have the right to vote.

Riku Aalto, the Presi­dent of the Industrial Union, stres­sed that the turnout in the last munici­pal elec­tions was only 59 per cent.

– This means that every vote cast then coun­ted for almost two votes. So why give that power to someone else, when you can exercise it your­self, Aalto asks.

A good web page for rele­vant infor­ma­tion on elec­tions is www.vaalit.fi. It provi­des infor­ma­tion in Finnish, Swedish and English on all you need to know about these elec­tions and what you need to do to cast your ballot. Just remem­ber to vote.

TEXT HEIKKI JOKINEN