The Republic of Finland – A Representative Democracy, Part 2.

Surprisingly this sparsely populated country has a few achievements worth noting at the forefront of citizens rights. Finland was one of the first countries to introduce Universal Suffrage and the first Parliament to have elected women members. Finland has a representative democracy but how does this all work and do people actually feel better represented?

Part 2. The Finnish Electoral System

Presidential Elections

According to the constitution, Finnish citizens can vote for a new president every six years, and the same person can not stand for more than two terms. The President is elected by direct popular vote, with a secondary run off, if no candidate achieves above 50% of votes.  The latest elections in 2024 saw nine candidates, including 3 women, from a wide range of political backgrounds who were confident to have a shot. Two others didn’t get the required 20,000 endorsements for candidacy.  No shortage of people willing to take part. The two candidates left in the running after the first vote, debated and appeared everywhere for another couple of weeks before Alexander Stubb won by a small margin. The result of 52% to 48% was close but was universally accepted. The campaign had been friendly with sensible debate of the issues affecting Finland and the responsibilities of the President. It was noticeable that once the result was confirmed, the new President elect went straight to the opposition campaign headquarters to thank Mr Pekka Haavisto for a good competition. President elect Stubb got cheers from Pekka’s supporters before going on to celebrate the win with his own campaign team.

Parliamentary Elections

Parliamentary elections are held every fourth year, on the third Sunday in April. Two hundred Members of Parliament are elected in a direct, proportional and secret vote. It is proportional representation (PR). The number of representatives elected from each electoral district is in proportion to the population of that district. The electoral district of Åland, the islands in the Southwest, always elects one representative. The PR system means that effectively you are voting for the party of your choice and the person who represents your views the best.  Your personal candidate might not make it into Parliament but someone from the same party will. The numbers from each party in Parliament depends on the total votes for each party, which hopefully represents the views of society as a whole, and not just the winning party. Hence, normally a coalition Government is formed from the two parties with the most votes.

This is the difference between the UK’s first past the post system and the Finnish PR system. The UK Government elected in 2019, had a huge eighty seat majority (43.6% of votes) but the main opposition parties overall got more votes (52.3%). A number of UK voters then feel under represented in Westminster and the ruling party is empowered to introduce policies that a large number of the population don’t necessarily agree with.

Municipal Elections

Finnish Municipal elections are held every four years for representatives on the local councils. Local democracy in action, EU and other certain foreign nationals can also vote. The municipalities are responsible for most services, provision of cycle lanes, snow clearance, libraries, and everything that makes the locality work including grants to incentivise businesses.

County Elections

Another tier of democracy was introduced recently, the County Elections for representatives of the Wellbeing Councils with responsibility for healthcare, social care, and emergency services. The handover from municipalities happened on 1^st January 2023 and as I write these services are not quite as efficient as they were before. The Government appears to have not carefully considered the funding needed to get these important services running smoothly.  Separate responsibility for these important services seems a good idea and an added layer of accountability but the implementation needs more work.

European Parliament

Then every five years there are the elections for Finland’s 14 representatives to the European Parliament. The Finns take these elections far more seriously than people in the UK ever used to. Finland sends 14 representatives out of 705 total MEPs, so Finland is only small fry in the EU Parliament, and every Finnish elected member has to be good enough to make an impact. Many main-stream big name Finnish politicians choose to go off as an MEP to Brussels, often relinquishing a seat in the Finnish Parliament. Whereas, when the UK was a member, people reluctantly voted in the EU elections and often candidates ended up being the representative of the protest vote, probably a consequence of the First Past the Post system.

Election Practicalities

Elections are held on Sundays when more people are likely to be free to vote. The voting authority takes over a local school, which conveniently is free on Sundays. There is a tradition to go out to vote and then go onwards for an election day coffee. Advance voting is also possible at voting stations set up in local libraries and shopping centres for even more flexibility for citizens. It is not allowed to canvas outside a voting station and our English discussion group meeting in the library had to be careful not to mention the elections with voting going on in the same building that week. Access to vote is easy and people take it with great responsibility.  At the 2024 Presidential Election, turnout of registered voters was over 71%, and the last Parliamentary Election turnout was 72.6%, all of these people turning up to voluntary vote, which reflects the importance Finns place on their democracy.

People are automatically registered to vote because of the Finnish National Data Register. Six months before our daughter reached age 18, and eligible to vote, the authorities sent her correspondence reminding her of the importance, responsibility, and benefits of going to vote. Depending on your residence status in the country, the different notifications arrive in the post before any upcoming elections. Then it is up to individuals whether they participate or not. The pre-election debates and issues are well reported on television, the radio and in the newspapers, so it is fairly difficult to forget an upcoming voting day.