THE FINNISH PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS ARE DRAWING NEARER AND THE INFLUENCER ACADEMY IS GETTING READY

Finnish people will elect new Members of Parliament (MP) for their four year term in 2.4.2023. JCI Finland Influencer Academy took a deep dive into the elections in a training session held in February to understands the essence of the elections and how one can influence and create impact in the political arenas. The session featured Heini Huotarinen, election lawyer (JCI Helsinki), and Johanna Vuorela, political researcher, as special guests. Read the whole article to gain insight on what the elections are all about.

Prerequisites for the elections

Long before the advance voting or even the candidates have started their campaigns the elections have required long hours and great effort from both the parties and the election authorities. The political parties have raised fun- ding, recruited candidates and planned their campaigns. The election authorities have been busy maintaining their IT-systems, determing where polling stations will be set up, and calculating the distribution of MP seats according to the population of the electoral districts. It might not occur to everyone what a large logistical operation the organization of the elections is. Millions of ballots and a huge amount of election stamps are sourced and freighted all across Finland and abroad to the advance polling stations.

The electoral system influences the election results

Did you know, that the party which receives the most votes might not win the elections? This is because Finland is divided into 13 electoral districts in which the parties, and their candidates, race against each other. The election results is determined based on the proportion of votes each candidate received and thus the overall national vote count has very little impact on who wins the elections. The electoral districts also differ in size: the largest district, Uusimaa, gets 37 MPs, while the smallest, Lapland, only gets 6 MPs. Åland has one MP regardless of the population.

The differences in the district sizes determine how easy, or hard, it is for a party to have it's candidate elected. This is sometimes referred as the hidden vote threshold. This means that in the smaller districts it is easier, in relative terms, for the more popular parties to win the MP seats than it is for the less popular parties. It not a coincidence that many parties, which don't yet have any seats, have the most candidates in the Uusimaa district.

Voting is an easy way to create an impact

In representative democracy elections provide a peaceful way for the people to change their leaders. The voters have a great power and great responsibility in the elections in April as the incoming parliament will be in charge of the Finnish legislation, finances and the, oh so, topical foreign and security policy for the next four years. As a voter you should take your time getting to know the candidates, the parties, and the causes they promote. Your vote will benefit both the candidate and their party.

For a Finnish voter, finding the right candidate and the right party, is the hardest part of the elections as there's no short supply of options. In addition to the 24 registered parties in Finland, constituency associations may nominate their independent candidates. Usually there are about 2500 candidates nationally, but one can only vote candidates of their own electoral district. You can learn about the views and causes of the candidates for example by browsing voting guides.

Casting your vote is the easy part then. You can vote in advance in any, domestic or abroad, advance polling station . You only need to bring your personal ID with you. On the election day you can only vote at a polling station in your own electoral district, which is determined by your place of residence on 10.2.2023.

Keep these influencing opportunities in mind:

- Sign up as a candidate! The time to register as a candidate for the Parliamentary elections ends at the end of February. You might be late for signing up for these elections, but next in line are the Presidental elections in January 2024 and the European Parliament election in June 2024. You can still sign up for those!

- Like and share social media posts made by candidates you support! This helps your favorite candidates gain visibility. Do notice that negative reactions tend to attract more attention, so don’t feed the trolls.

- If you happen to have more than just your hands in your pockets, you may consider supporting candidates financially. Donations made by private people to the candidates or to the parties that under 1500 euros are not published. Election funding does not guarantee that a candidate gets elected, but running a campaign is not cheap and many candidates spend their own savings or take loans to finance them.