In European elections, 15,221 voters cast their vote at advance polling stations abroad

A total of 15,071 persons visited the Finnish diplomatic and consular missions abroad to vote in advance in the elections to the European Parliament. Altogether 150 crew members voted on board Finnish vessels. In the 2019 European elections, 16,547 persons voted abroad at the Finnish missions and on board vessels.

In this year’s European elections, advance voting was possible at 166 polling stations in 86 countries. In addition, advance voting was arranged on board 44 Finnish vessels.

In all, over 263,000 persons with a permanent residence abroad were eligible to vote in this year’s elections, according to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.  In addition, eligible voters staying abroad on a temporary basis had the right to vote at Finland’s missions.

The voter turnout was the highest in Sweden, where 2,318 votes were cast in advance. Belgium saw the second highest turnout with 1,257 voters, followed by Spain (1,214 voters), the United Kingdom (1,208 voters) and Germany (1,145 voters). The United Kingdom was the only country where the number of advance voters was higher than in the 2019 European elections.

By far the busiest polling station abroad was in Brussels with 1,257 voters.  The number of votes cast in Stockholm and London were 1,025 and 796 respectively.

The number of votes cast abroad decreased by 7.5% compared to 2019. The countries that saw an increase in the number of voters were Australia (791%), the Netherlands (32%), Norway (29%) and the United Kingdom (14%).

Finns who permanently or temporarily reside or stay abroad have been able to vote by post since 2019.  Over 4,000 voters ordered the postal voting documents. The Ministry of Justice is responsible for organising and communicating about postal voting.