Radio | News week in plain Finnish | Saturday 19.4.2025

New councils

The results of the municipal and regional elections have been confirmed. The Ministry of Justice says that the votes have been verified and the results have been confirmed in municipalities and welfare areas.

In the news week, we will now take another look at the election results and tell you how the double election went.

SDP won both elections

Two elections were held in Finland last Sunday, regional elections and municipal elections. The elections elected new regional councils for welfare areas and municipal councils for municipalities.

In both elections, the Social Democrats (SDP) received the most votes. The Coalition Party came in second and the Centre Party came in third.

The Finns Party was the biggest loser in the elections. The Finns Party was 6th in both elections. It was also surpassed by the Left Alliance and the Greens.

The number of women in councils increased

Women performed well in both elections.

More women than men were elected to regional councils.

A record number of women, almost 45 percent, were also elected to municipal councils.

In the Helsinki region, more and more people with an immigrant background were elected to municipal councils.

The average age of new councillors increased slightly. The average age of councillors in municipalities and regions is just over 51 years.

The work of the new municipal and regional councils will begin at the beginning of June.

A record number of votes were rejected

Voter turnout in regional and municipal elections remained low. Just over half of those eligible to vote cast their votes.

Both elections also saw a record number of rejected votes, with a total of over 120,000 rejected votes.

Votes were rejected, for example, because voters mixed up their ballots for regional and municipal elections.

The Ministry of Justice intends to investigate how voters can be better advised and assisted at the polling station in the future.

Repetition

In the news week, we looked at the results of last weekend’s regional and municipal elections. Let’s recap a few things.

In both elections, the SDP received the most votes, while the Finns Party lost the most votes.

The number of women in regional and municipal councils increased. More and more immigrants also entered municipal councils.

A little over half of those eligible to vote voted.

A record number of votes were rejected in the election.

This was a news week - see you again tomorrow.