Municipal elections were held in Finland on 28 October 2012, with advance voting between 17 and 23 October 2012. 9,674 municipal council seats were open for election in 304 municipalities. The number of councillors decreased by over 700 compared to the previous election due to the merging of several municipalities. The term of the elected councillors will begin on 1 January 2013.

Funds In Finland, candidates have to declare their campaign funding. 15% of the declarations did not arrive in time.http://www.vaalirahoitus.fi/ section 4.1.2013

Competing parties

Centre Party National Coalition Party (NCP) Social Democratic Party (SDP) True Finns Green League Left Alliance Swedish People's Party (SPP) Christian Democrats Pirate Party Communist Party Change 2011 Independence Party Workers Party Communist Workers' Party – For Peace and Socialism For the Poor Freedom Party

Electoral method

The D'Hondt method is used in the election. The size of the municipal council or city council depends on the population of the municipality:

Population Number of councilmen under 2,000 13, 15 or 17 2,001–4,000 21 4,001–8,000 27 8,001–15,000 35 15,001–30,000 43 30,001–60,000 51 60,001–120,000 59 120,001–250,000 67 250,001–400,000 75 over 400,000 85

Helsinki is the only city in the last category and Espoo the only city in the second-to-last category.

National results

Party Votes Council seatsNumber%Swing (2008)Swing (2011)NumberNet ± 545,889 21.9% −1.6pp +1.5pp1,735 −286 487,92419.6% −1.7pp +0.5pp1,729 −337 465,16618.7% −1.4pp +2.9pp3,077 −440 307,79712.3% +7.0pp −6.7pp1,195 +752 213,1008.5% −0.4pp +1.3pp323 −47 199,6158.0% −0.8pp −0.1pp 640 −193 117,8654.7% ±0.0pp +0.4pp480 −30 93,2573.7% −0.4pp −0.3pp300 −51Communist Party11,1740.4% −0.1pp +0.1pp9 ±0 5,9860.2% New −0.3pp0 ±0Independence Party1,3030.1%±0.0pp −0.1pp0 −2Change 20111,2580.1% New −0.2pp1 +1Communist Workers' Party – For Peace and Socialism704<0.1%<0.1pp<0.1pp0 ±0For the Poor572<0.1%<0.1pp<0.1pp0±0Workers Party538<0.1%<0.1pp<0.1pp0±0Freedom Party15<0.1%New<0.1pp0±0Others41,3581.7% −0.8pp +1.3pp185 −102Total2,493,5219,674 −738

Turnout was 58.3%, lower than in the previous municipal election.

References

External links The Elections website of the Ministry of Justice