On 2 April voters will choose a new parliament in Finland, with 200 members of parliament to be elected to the legislature, which makes new laws and changes existing ones. MPs are elected from 13 electoral districts and are also responsible for representing the interests of their constituents.
Each party list gets allocated seats in proportion to their share of the vote in each electoral district. Voters pick candidates from the list, and the candidates are ranked in order of popularity. The most popular candidates from each list make it to parliament.
What are the issues?
Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP), Finland's youngest-ever premier, and her woman-led government have attracted unusual attention—in Finland and beyond—since taking office.
Less than a year into its term, the government was forced to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. And last year, just as the Covid crisis was dissipating, Finland faced another crisis as neighbouring Russia invaded Ukraine. Public opinion turned almost immediately, and the country was soon hurtling towards Nato membership, reversing years of military non-alignment.
These two major crises—Covid and the war in Ukraine—have triggered an energy crunch and surging inflation that are impacting the cost of living in Finland today. State debt inevitably rose during Covid, but government borrowing and the sustainability of public finances have become a main theme in this election. In addition to the economy, voters are also weighing issues such as the climate and the country’s educational decline.
You can explore candidates' approach to these and other issues with the help of Yle's election compass, which is available in English.
Sanna Marin's current five-party coalition government includes the Social Democrats, Centre Party, Greens, Left Alliance and the Swedish People's Party. Those parties currently control 117 of the 200 seats in the Finnish parliament. The electorate is divided into 13 districts that each elect parliamentarians using a proportional system.
The party that wins the most MPs in the 200-member parliament gets the opportunity to form a government. To do that it will need to form a coalition with other parties commanding at least 101 MPs between them.
Finland's electoral system is based on the d'Hondt proportional representation model. This allows voters to pick one candidate from party lists, with the candidates then arranged in order of popularity. Each party list allocates seats in proportion to their vote share. In short, this means that the more popular candidates a party has, the better the party does. And celebrities can garner a lot of votes, so there are plenty on the party lists this year.
Who's likely to win?
The Social Democrats, National Coalition Party and Finns Party are all competing for the premiership.
The party that gets the most MPs is given the first chance to form a government, and usually takes the Prime Minister's job—but negotiations can prove difficult and drawn-out.
The NCP has held a lead in the polls for the past year. However, the country's three most popular political parties—NCP, SDP and FP—had roughly the same amount of support among potential voters in Yle's most recent poll.
The NCP last held the premiership in 2015 under Alexander Stubb, who was replaced by Juha Sipilä's Centre government that was characterised by austerity and spending cuts.
'Red-blue' coalition
Both the SDP and NCP have said they are willing to join the same government if the other party claims a victory in this April's election. Polls have also suggested that this is the most popular hypothetical coalition after the election.
Marin has said her party will not join a coalition with the Finns Party, calling them "openly racist." The NCP's Petteri Orpo meanwhile has not ruled out a coalition with Riikka Purra's Finns Party, but denied that his party was strategising to form a government with them, as recently suggested by Marin.
A really simple guide to the main parties
- The Centre Party (Centre) is a centrist party with roots in the countryside and a traditionally strong rural vote. It has liberal and traditionalist wings.
- The centre-right National Coalition (NCP) is an economically liberal party with a strong socially conservative faction.
- The Finns Party (FP) is a right-wing, eurosceptic populist party that is opposed to immigration.
- The Social Democratic Party (SDP) is a centre-left party with strong links to Finland's trade unions.
- The Green Party (Green) is an environment-focused party founded in the 1970s with a growing supporter base among young, urban voters.
- The Left Alliance (LA) is a left-wing group with roots in the Communist party and strong links to the labour movement.
- The Swedish People's Party (SPP) is a liberal party advocating for Finland's Swedish-speaking minority.
- The Christian Democrat Party (CD) is a small, socially conservative party with links to Christian religious groups.
Advance voting in Finland is from 22-28 March and 22-25 March abroad. Election Day is 2 April.
Finnish citizens who have turned 18 no later than on the day of the election are entitled to vote. Eligible voters will receive a poll card in the mail indicating their local polling station on election day.
