Elections to 310 municipal councils today

Elections to 310 municipal councils in the country will be held on Sunday.

Total 4, 460299 voters comprising 2,273991 females and 2186308 males will choose their representatives to the municipal councils through the ballot scheduled for 9.00am to 8.00pm.

In the mean time, more than 1,470,000 or 33 per cent of the voters have already cast votes in advance from May 26 to June 8, official sources said.

A total of 35,627 candidates are contesting the polls this year. Out of them 21,480 are men and 14,147 women.

Of all candidates, 95.6 per cent were nominated by the current parliamentary parties while 1.2 per cent were nominated by parties that do not have MPs in the present Parliament.

A total of 1,854 polling stations were set up across the country for Sunday´s elections.

The elections originally scheduled for 18 April has been shifted to 13 June following the worsening situation of coronavirus in the country.

Election officials will monitor safety at the polling stations and advise voters on how to follow the instructions.

Special measures were taken to enable voters placed in quarantine or isolation by a doctor or having respiratory symptoms to vote. Voters can contact the central municipal election board of their municipality to ask about these special arrangements.

People who reach the age of 18 years on election day at the latest have the right to vote in the municipal elections in their municipality of residence.

In addition to Finnish citizens, those citizens of EU Member States, Iceland and Norway who have a municipality of residence in Finland are also entitled to vote. Other foreign citizens are entitled to vote if they have had a municipality of residence in Finland for at least two years.

The Digital and Population Data Services Agency sent a notice of right to vote (polling card) to all eligible voters.

Voters must present some form of official photo ID when voting, for example a passport, an identity card or a driving licence. The old cardboard driving licence will also be accepted as proof of identity, if the voter can be identified from the photo and the election official can thus reliably verify the voter's identity.

Election officials may ask voters to briefly remove their face mask to verify their identity.