Democracy and participation
Municipal elections
- Municipal elections are held to elect councillors to municipal councils. The elections take place every four years, and the next municipal elections will be held in 2025. Then Finnish citizens aged 18 or over can choose who they want to represent them in municipal decision-making bodies. Municipal elections are essentially about local democracy. There we elect decision-makers, who are closest to us and shape our daily lives.
- The important role of municipalities in our everyday lives cannot be emphasised enough. Municipalities make decisions about the future development of health care, child day care, early childhood education and care and services for older people as well as about road maintenance, basic education and services related to sports, physical activity and culture.
Who can become a candidate?
- Anyone who wants to become a candidate must meet the requirements for general eligibility for election laid down in the Local Government Act. They must be at least 18 years old and their municipality of residence must be the municipality where they stand for election. Further, candidates must not be in any such employment relationships as referred to in the Act when the municipal councillors’ term begins. For example, a local government official who is in a senior position cannot stand for election to the council of the municipality by which she or he is employed.
- Persons eligible to stand as a candidate in municipal elections are those:
- whose municipality of residence is the municipality in question;
- who have the right to vote in municipal elections in one of the municipalities; and
- who have not been declared legally incompetent, i.e. who are not under guardianship.
- Finnish citizens and, under certain conditions, foreign nationals resident in a municipality have the right to vote and stand as candidates in municipal elections.
- For more information and detailed instructions, please visit the elections website of the Ministry of Justice
There were 33,618 candidates for the 2017 municipal elections, of whom 8,999 were elected for the council term 2017–2021.