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Thu, 04 Feb, 2016 12:03:32 AM Working group agrees on 18 autonomous regions FTimes – STT Report, Feb 4  File Photo Lehtikuva. The country is likely to hold provincial elections for the first time next year as the working group agreed to introduce 18 autonomous regions.
The regions will be solely or jointly responsible for discharging social and health services, among other things.
The working group comprised of political party secretaries almost unanimously proposed holding the elections in October 2017, the secretary of the ruling Suomen Keskusta (Centre Party), Timo Laaninen told the news agency STT.
The provincial elections will be held for the first time in conjunction with the municipal elections. This means that next spring municipal elections will be postponed by half a year.
Starting from 2021, the election time will revert to spring which consequently will cut short the first term.
Parliament does not have adequate time to prepare the provincial legislation so that the elections could have been held in April 2017. The government’s draft bill to parliament, according to the plan, will be tabled in October this year, Laaninen said.
Keskusta Secretary Timo Laaninen. File Photo Lehtikuva. Both Laaninen and Perussuomalaiset (Finns Party) leader Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo said the party secretaries more or less unanimously agreed among themselves to hold the provincial and municipal elections jointly.
According to Laaninen, only the oppositions Vihreä liitto (Green League) and the Suomen ruotsalainen kansanpuolue (Swedish People’s Party of Finland) are opposed to the postponement of the municipal elections.
The second alternative was to merge the provincial elections with the presidential elections at the beginning of 2018.
“That [proposal] did not receive widespread support. The major parties at the end were of the opinion that merging [the provincial elections] with the presidential elections is not possible,” said Laaninen.
The date of the elections was reported by the Suomenmaa, a Finnish language publication affiliated to the Centre Party, among other news outlets.
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