On Sunday 23 January, Finns went to the polls to cast their vote in the country’s first county elections. Across the 21 assemblies ALDE Party members Keskusta (Center Party) and Svenska Folkpartiet (Swedish People’s Party) performed well and received 19.3% and 4.9% of the votes. Turnout was 47.5 %, which is quite lower than last year’s municipal elections (55.1%).

These counties are part of the biggest reform of the Finnish public health system, which transfers social competences such as healthcare and emergency services from 294 municipalities to 21 new county authorities where the board is directly elected.

Keskusta became the largest party in 9 out of 21 counties and ranks top three in the overall result. Party leader Annika Saarikko thanked all the voters for their trust in these first ever county elections.

“A big thank you to all the voters of the Central City! Congratulations to the new regional councillors from all over Finland!”

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SFP party leader, Anna-Maja Henriksson, reacted pleased with her party’s result and to the rise of SFP’s Deputy Leader Henrik Wickström (27 years old), who became the youngest and 3^rd most popular politician in the regional elections.

“Thank you to all SFP voters! We achieved a strong result and achieved our goal. In Western Uusimaa, Deputy Leader Henrik Wickström made this election a brawl, rising to become the third most popular politician in the whole country!”

Kiitos kaikille ⁦@sfprkp⁩ äänestäjille! Teimme vahvan tuloksen ja saavutimme tavoitteemme.
Länsi -Uudellamaalla Inkoon ⁦@wickstromhenrik⁩ teki näitten vaalien ilmaveivin, nousemalla koko maan kolmanneksi parhaaksi ääniharavaksi! #aluevaalit https://t.co/TYFD4rmXEH

— Anna-Maja Henriksson (@anna_maja) January 24, 2022

The young SFP Deputy party leader states that these elections are very important for the Swedish speaking minority in Finland and already looks forward to the coalition talks:

“We have an important role to play in communicating the diversity of Western Uusimaa right at the beginning of the council term …. I was thinking of calling the bigger parties, because we are about to start seat negotiations and cooperation must work as we build a new system of governance.”

You can find the result in each county here.

Photo credit: Annika Saarikko and SFP • RKP