There is barely a month left until the European Parliament elections that in Finland will be held on Sunday 26 May 2019.
If you are a citizen of any country of the European Union (EU) and you meet the other requirements, including the fact that you have applied to exercise your right to vote in Finland, then you can participate in the election of the new members of the European Parliament.
If you are an EU citizen, you probably received an informative letter from your Local Register Office (Maistraatti) a couple of months ago. In the envelope came enclosed the forms to fill out and also the details in nine languages about the procedures and the deadline to register your right to vote.
According to this information sent to the homes by Maistraatti and the Population Register of Finland, the obligation to register the right to vote obeys the need to ensure that no person can exercise their right to vote in more than one country. This is the reason why the authorities have set three very strict conditions. As a general rule, you will be entitled to vote next 26 May if you meet the following conditions:
- You still have a municipality of residence in Finland on 5 April 2019.
- You have not forfeited your right to vote in your home State due to a decision on a single civil or criminal case.
- You have notified the Local Register Office (Maistraatti) in writing that you want to use your right to vote only in Finland no later than at 4 p.m. on 7 March 2019.
In addition, persons employed by the EU or an international organisation operating in Finland, or the family members of such persons, may vote in Finland if their personal data is registered in the Finnish Population Information System.
Your home country will be notified
To avoid duplication of votes, the Population Register Center will inform the relevant authorities of the home States of the persons who register in Finland's vote register. In those cases, the personal data of the voters will be eliminated from the electoral registers of their countries of origin.
Those who have entered in the register of voters of Finland and who have the right to vote in the European Parliament Elections in Finland will receive a notification card from Maistraatti no later than May 2, 2019. This card is the confirmation of their eligibility to vote.
In the event that you wish to exercise your right to vote in the European Parliament Elections in your country of origin, you do not need to send any kind of communication to the Finnish authorities.
Conditions to be a candidate
You will also be elegible as a candidate in the European Parliamentary elections provided that:
- Based on your notification, you have the right to vote in Finland in these elections.
- You have not been nominated as a candidate in these European Parliamentary elections in another member State.
- You have not forfeited your eligibility in the European Parliamentary elections in your home State.
Maistraatti explains that if you wish to be a candidate, you must contact the political parties operating in Finland. Alternatively, if you do not want to be a candidate of a political party, you must collect signatures of support for your candidacy from 2,000 people with the right to vote.
For more information on the European Parliamentary elections you can visit the elections page of the Finnish Ministry of Justice. You can access to it by clicking HERE
