Female candidates ration in Perussuomalaiset lowest, highest in Vihreät

The ration of female candidates for the municipal elections is the lowest in the main opposition Perussuomalaiset (Finns Party) and highest in the Vihreä Liitto (Green League) among the parliamentary parties, according to Statistics Finland.

The municipal elections are scheduled to be held on 13 June.

The advance voting in the municipal elections began on 26 May and will be continued two weeks till 8 June.

Of the parliamentary party candidates, the proportion of female candidates is smallest for the Perussuomalaiset, which is only 21.5 per cent while biggest for the Vihreä Liitto, which is 60.0 per cent of the total candidates of the party.

A total of 35,627 candidates are contesting the polls, which is 5.6 per cent higher than in the previous Municipal elections this year.

As many as 176 current Members of Parliament (MPs) and 6,520 present municipal councilors are contesting the municipal elections.

Nineteen of the registered parties nominated candidates, while the number of candidates nominated by constituency associations was 1,126.

Of the candidates, 21,480 are men and 14,147 women.

In Municipal elections, candidates can be nominated by registered political parties and constituency associations established by persons entitled to vote. Parties may form electoral alliances and constituency associations may form joint lists. Each party or electoral alliance may nominate at most 1.5 times the number of candidates as the number of councillors elected in the municipality.

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

Among all parties that nominated more than five candidates, the proportion of female candidates is highest in the Feminist Party (81.8 per cent) and lowest in the Liberal Party (6.9 per cent).

Both of the candidates nominated by the Citizens' Party are men. Men account for 60.3 per cent of all parliamentary parties’ candidates. In parties and constituency associations from which no MPs were elected to the present Parliament, men's share of candidates is 59.8 per cent.

The average age of all candidates is 50.0 years, that of male candidates is 51.0 and that of female ones 48.3. Of all candidates, 26,721 are aged 40 or over. Of the candidates, 951 are aged 75 or over and 1,724 are aged 25 or younger.

Of the candidates, 91.9 per cent are Finnish or Sami speakers, 5.4 per cent are Swedish speakers and 2.6 per cent of the candidates have other than national languages as their native language. Among the parliamentary parties, the Green League (5.1 per cent), the Swedish People’s Party (4.5 per cent) and the Christian Democrats (3.5 per cent) have the highest proportion of candidates speaking other languages.