Parliamentary Elections

According to the Constitution of Finland, sovereign power in Finland belongs to the people, who are represented by Parliament. MPs are elected every four years in general elections. Every citizen who has reached the age of 18 is entitled to vote. Elections are also held to elect the President of the Republic, municipal councils and Members of the European Parliament. Any citizen who is entitled to vote and is not under guardianship can also stand for election. Citizens influence public policy by voting.

Key principles in elections

Finland has a unicameral Parliament with 200 seats. MPs are elected every four years in general elections. These are held on the third Sunday in March. Members of Parliament are elected directly and by secret ballot using a proportional system. Democracy is based on universal suffrage. Every Finnish citizen who has reached the age of 18 by the election date is entitled to vote. Each citizen has one vote.

Elections are direct in that citizens vote for a particular candidate rather than a party. Only the voter knows which candidate he or she has voted for. Ballots are marked in voting booths and are then folded and placed in a ballot box. Citizens must vote in person under the supervision of election authorities.

In advance voting, secrecy is ensured by sealing each ballot in an envelope, which is not marked in any way. Election envelopes are opened at the central election board when vote counting begins.

Proportionality is intended to ensure that representatives of different parties and other groups are included in Parliament in the same relation as the number of votes received in elections.

The Ministry of Justice has general responsibility for conducting elections. Practical arrangements are taken care of locally. For this purpose the following are appointed:

an electoral district board in each of the 15 electoral districts
a central election board in each of over 400 municipalities, plus local election boards (about 3,000) and election commissions (about 500) and
election officials in all advance polling places (about 800)

Other election authorities include the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, which arranges advance voting abroad, and the Population Register Centre, which is responsible for preparing the register of voters. The register of voters contains information on all citizens who are eligible to vote, including name, ID number, domicile and polling place. The register is prepared on the 46th day before the election date. The register is on public display and people can check their own personal information if they wish. A card indicating the election date and the address of the polling place are sent to each person in the register.

Electoral districts

For parliamentary elections, the nation is divided into 15 electoral districts, according to the division into regions. The number of MPs returned by each district depends on the population. Åland is an exception in that it always returns one MP. The number of seats allocated to each district is revised half a year before elections.

Finland’s general elections

General elections are held in Finland to elect:
the President of the Republic
the 200 Members of Parliament
municipal councils
Finland’s 14 Members of the European Parliament
Elections are conducted in accordance with the Election Act (714/1998) In the 2007 parliamentary elections, seats were assigned as follows:

Helsinki electoral district 21
Uusimaa electoral district 34
Varsinais-Suomi electoral district 17
Satakunta electoral district 9
Häme electoral district 14
Pirkanmaa electoral district 18
Kymi electoral district 12
South Savo electoral district 6
North Savo electoral district 10
North Karelia electoral district 6
Vaasa electoral district 17
Central Finland electoral district 10
Oulu electoral district 18
Lapland electoral district 7
Åland electoral district 1
Total 200 seats

Nominating candidates

Any citizen who is entitled to vote and who has not been placed under guardianship is also entitled to stand for Parliament, with the exception of career soldiers and certain high-ranking officials such as the Chancellor of Justice and members of the Supreme Court. These must resign from their posts before they can stand for election or serve as MPs. Candidates for Parliament can be nominated by political parties entered in the register maintained by he Ministry of Justice and by voters’ associations. A voters’ association to nominate a single candidate can be established by a minimum of one hundred registered voters in a district. Parties can form electoral alliances and voters’ associations can form joint lists. These are designed to improve the group’s relative position in elections.

Each party and voters’ association must submit its list of candidates to the electoral district board in the district where they intend to nominate candidates. This must be done by 4 pm on the 40th day before the election date. Electoral district boards examine lists of candidates and make sure that candidates are eligible to stand for Parliament. The electoral district boards approve lists of candidates on the 31st day before the election date.

Voting

Registered voters can vote in advance or on the election date. Advance voting begins on the 11th day before the election date. It ends on the 8th day before the election date outside the country and on the 5th day before the election date in Finland.

Public advance polling places, where any registered voter can vote, include designated post offices and municipal offices in Finland as well as diplomatic and consular missions abroad. Special advance polling places include hospitals, prisons and certain other institutions, where voting is limited to patients and inmates.

Under certain conditions, advance voting can take place at home. This option is only available to people who cannot get to polling places because of serious disability. In this case an election official comes to the person’s home to allow the person to vote. Personnel on Finnish ships abroad can vote in advance on board ship.

Polling places are open on the election date from 9 am to 8 pm. There is at least one polling place in each municipality. The number of polling places in the country as a whole is about 3,000. Voters can vote at the polling place that is indicated in the register of voters and on the voting card that is sent to each person in advance.

Vote counting and election results

Electoral district boards count the votes given in advance voting and on the election date, and on the third day after the election date they approve the result of the election in the electoral district.

The d’Hondt system of proportional representation is used. In the first stage the total number of votes for each group is calculated:

the number of votes received by an individual party that does not belong to an electoral alliance
the number of votes received by an electoral alliance
the number of votes received by a joint list
the number of votes received by a voters’ association that does not belong to a joint list

Parties in an electoral alliance are thus treated as a single group, as are voters’ association that belong to a joint list. In the second stage the candidates in each group are placed in order according to the number of votes each candidate has received. In the third stage each candidate is assigned a reference figure. The reference figure for the candidate with the most votes in each group is the total for that group, the figure for the candidate who comes in second is half the total, the figure for the candidate who comes in next is a third of the total etc. Finally all the candidates in the electoral district are placed in order according to their reference figures, and from this list the appropriate number of MPs is elected.

Appealing election results

Decisions regarding the results of parliamentary elections can be appealed to the provincial administrative court within 14 days of their publication. If a decision or measure taken by an election official is found to be unlawful and if it has apparently influenced the election result, the result must be corrected. If this is not possible a new election must be held in the district in question. A decision issued by the provincial administrative court can be appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court

Elections website

The Ministry of Justice’s website at www.vaalit.fi contains information on elections, referendums, political parties and citizens’ participation in general. Election results and statistical information are also published on the site. The information on the site is intended for citizens, the media and election authorities. Every Finnish citizen who has reached the age of 18 is entitled to vote in parliamentary elections. In advance voting secrecy is ensured by sealing each ballot in an election envelope, which is not marked in any way. photo: Ministry of Justice