Finland Times

File Photo – Lehtikuva.

The political parties are yet to finalise the candidates for most of the posts, although the first phase of the municipal elections will be held in April.

 

All the parliamentary parties, however, are expected to achieve their targets of candidate numbers before the elections, sources in the parties said.

 

All the major parties excepting the ruling Suomen Keskusta (Centre Party) will pursue at least the same number of candidates as in the 2012 elections.

 

The Keskusta in this election targets to nominate about 8,000 candidates. In the previous election, they had about 8,400 candidates.

 

Keskusta party secretary Jouni Ovaskainen said the party already has finalised the names of about 2,000 candidates for the upcoming municipal polls.

 

After the Keskusta, the most extensive offerings are from the third largest component of the three-party alliance government, the Kansallinen Kokoomus (National Coalition Party), and the main opposition party Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue (Social Democratic Party of Finland-SDP).

 

The Kokoomus intends to have 300 more candidates than in 2012 which will mean a total of about 7,200 candidates, while the SDP will again have around 7,000 candidates.

 

“There is interest in the elections, but it’s clearly more difficult than last time. The reason is clear: great uncertainty about the future role of local government,” said SDP party secretary Reijo Paananen.

 

The second largest component of the three-party alliance government, the Perussuomalaiset (True Finns) has not yet set an official target, but party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo estimated that the number of the candidates would be between 4,000 and 5,000 candidates.

 

In the previous election, the Perussuomalaiset nominated 4,400 candidates.

 

“We are in a better state now than we were five months before the previous election. BAHBAHBAH does not seem to be very important,” Slunga-Poutsalo said.