Radio | News week in plain Finnish | Saturday 12.4.2025

Who can vote and how to vote in municipal and regional elections

Regional and municipal elections are on Sunday, April 13.

There will be two elections in Finland tomorrow, Sunday. People will vote in municipal and regional elections on the same day.

Many foreigners are also allowed to vote in both elections.

Now we will tell you more about voting.

Municipal and regional councils are being elected now

Tomorrow’s elections are important for all of us. They will determine who will make decisions in their home municipality and welfare region.

Regional elections elect regional councils. They decide on things like health centers and elderly care.

Municipal elections elect municipal councils. They decide how the municipality spends money on, for example, schools, libraries or public transport.

Municipal elections are held in all municipalities in mainland Finland.

Regional elections are held everywhere else but not in Helsinki.

Who can vote?

Many foreigners who have lived in Finland for a long enough time are also allowed to vote in both elections.

You can vote if you have received a notification of your right to vote. It has been sent by post or electronically to the Suomi.fi service.

There are 2 ballots

On election day, you always vote at your local polling station. The address is stated in your voting rights notice.

Polls will open tomorrow morning, Sunday, at 9 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

You will need proof of identity. You do not need a voting rights declaration.

At the polling station, the election officer will give you 2 ballots. At the voting booth, you will write your candidate number on the ballots.

You have to be careful with the ballots and numbers. The ballot for regional elections is purple. In regional elections, all candidate numbers are 4 digits.

The ballot paper for municipal elections is white. The candidate numbers start with the number 2.

You can still check the numbers on the wall of the voting booth.

The clerk stamps the ballots, and you drop them into the ballot box, or box, at the polling station.

Repetition

Regional and municipal elections will be held in Finland tomorrow. Let’s recap the most important issues.

You can vote in regional and municipal elections if you have received a notification of your right to vote.

On election day, you can only vote at your local polling station, which opens at 9 a.m.

There are 2 ballot papers, purple for regional elections and white for municipal elections. You can still check the candidate numbers on the wall of the voting booth.

This was Uutisviikko. Sunday’s Uutisviikko will be after midnight. That’s when we’ll report on the election results. Let’s hear it!