Many of Finland’s election compasses are now open for business ahead of next month’s local elections, and they provide a wealth of information on candidates who announced their intentions before the election.
Yle’s election compass is available in English and offers a short opinion poll to which 52 per cent of all local election candidates respond. Answer the same questions and the program will suggest candidates you may want to vote for.
But the programs also allow us to check the opinions of the main party candidates and give some idea of where the parties are likely to stand on certain issues. This is important because even if the election is personal, each candidate is on the party list and your vote may ultimately help you choose another candidate from the list.
So what do the parties think? We looked at three national questions from the compass to see how the candidates responded.
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First, the attitude towards municipal day care supplements was surprisingly uniform. These supplements are paid to parents who keep their children out of day care until they are three years old.
The idea is to ease the burden of day care services, as only a fraction of the actual cost of day care is covered by family service fees.
Candidates from the Christian Democrats, the Center Party and the Finnish parties support the additions quite strongly. But even among parties with a less positive view of the increase, a majority of compass candidates still said additional fees should be paid.
Jarkko Lahtinen A spokesman for the Association of Municipalities said the result was surprising as the municipality has sought to reduce benefits in recent years.
"In this sense, it is surprising that future municipal decision-makers believe that an additional fee should be paid," said Lahtinen.
"On the other hand, it is easy to answer yes to such questions," Lahtinen added. "But when you look at it from practically different perspectives, it’s not that simple.
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The statement “Schools should have at least one day of vegetarian food every week” distinguishes the Finnish Party from others.
Most of all other parties were pleased that there was one meatless day a week in schools to reduce the climate impact of school meals.
The Greens, the Left and the SDP candidates were most positive about the Vegetable Days, but only a third of the Finnish party’s candidates in the compass said they were in favor of such a policy.
The question can be seen as simple and practical. But it is also a window into the worldview of some candidates.
"It is related to the idea of what values municipalities and the whole of Finland should build," said Jenni Karimäki From the Research Center of the Parliament of the University of Turku.
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"My municipality should offer free contraception to those under 25 years of age" is another issue that showed a clear gap between the parties.
The majority of candidates from the Green Party, the Left Alliance, the Swedish People’s Party and the SDP accepted this statement. A narrow majority of Finnish and Christian Democrat candidates disagreed.
The goal of providing free prevention is to reduce the number of abortions and the spread of sexually transmitted infections.
About 25 municipalities have already started offering it, and a nationwide experiment is part of it Sanna Maringovernment (SDP) government program.
Researcher: Elections are even more important this time
Researcher Karimäki says he believes the importance of election compasses will be greater this time than in previous years.
In any case, their importance has grown, but the situation in Covid has accelerated this trend.
"I think compasses see a lot of users," Karimäki said. "They are especially important among young people as a way to find candidates and parties."
About 15,000 candidates have responded to Yle’s election compass from more than 30,000 candidates.
This week in our All Points North podcast, Ylen Ville Seuri answers questions about the election compass. Send yours as a voice memo on WhatsApp to +358 44 421 0909.
Recently, a podcast asked why it is important to vote. You can listen to the episode using the embedded player here or via Yle Areena, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or a regular podcast player using an RSS feed.
Source: The Nordic Page