The municipal and county elections were historically held at the same time. This resulted in a significant amount of lost votes and branded election rally’s where a party’s unsure significance was ‘assured’ in private talks. Many attendants resorted to sneering, feeling bad or to drinking.
After the election results had become clear on Sunday night, Riikka Purra, the chairwoman of the Finns Party and the minister of finance, addressed the party at the Finns’ election night event at the Little Finlandia.
“It was bad, really bad, Purra,” said.
Purra had reportedly been hiding from the media after the advance votes were published, and the Finns Party had lost a crazy amount of votes, which the Finnish media had started describing a “humiliating defeat.”
But now she was speaking on the stage trying to hold back her tears.
Meanwhile, at the vote leader party of the Social Democrats at the new luxurious hotel NH Collection Helsinki Grand Hansa in Helsinki center, the party chairman, Antti Lindtman, was smiling and cheering under shining chandaliers.
“We have made a historic result—a historic rise to the largest party after twenty years,” Lindtman said in his speech.
Lindtman highlighted the SDP’s achievements in various regions: in Tampere, the party secured the mayor’s position; in Turku and Vantaa, it holds the top spot; and in Helsinki, it is vying for the title of largest party. Chairman Lindtman assured that the party will strive to enhance access to healthcare and improve educational outcomes in schools.
After his speech, Lindtman gave a shy kiss on his wife’s cheek.
After a while, though, under the supporting cheers and applause of the crowd, Lindtman went “all in” on the lips, like Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets.
Lindtman, 42, has been one of the loudest voices in the opposition in plenary sessions in the Parliament Building. I can’t hardly remember a time when he was not shouting and blaming the government for something … usually about lying to voters or general remarks on right-wing politics or cuts to social benefits. On May Day last year, in Oulu—the capital of Ostrobothnia— Lindtman revealed missing Timo Soini, the former chairman of the Finns Party who has replaced by chairman Jussi Halla-aho in 2017.
“Soini was popular, but he was neither a misanthrope nor a lover of right-wing economic policy. All that is left of Soini’s party is a name and a shell,” Lindtman said.
That’s, off course, parliamentary politics and we should be talking about local politics. If we look at the numbers: the SDP’s mandate in the welfare regions (county elections) increased by 43 seats and in the municipalities by 251 seats.
Still, in small towns like Loviisa, where the members of the Swedish People’s Party (SPP, RKP) dominated the results, and where the “vote-magnet” of the SDP Meri Lohenoja received a total of 176 votes, compared to SPP’s Otto Andersson’s 1,210—and where the SDP actually gained only one new seat— the SPP with 15 seats and the SDP with 8 will continue to be the underdog as it has been much of the history in the town that was named after the Queen by a King who suffocated from eating too many buns filled with cream.
But this doesn’t seem to the lower the spirit of some of the citizens, in a town, where the SDP is almost like a cult.
“The only thing that matter’s is that the SDP won!” shouted an elderly man called Lefa in Loviisa who was once a candidate in municipal elections but managed to pull only a few votes and still considers Tarja Halonen to be our only “true president.”
“Time’s were different many decades ago,” he said. “The nuclear power plant was the biggest employer, and I even had the honor to work there for a while. It felt like ‘being part of something bigger.’”
If one takes the car down the curvy roads of small towns where potholes dot the asphalt, and during all the zig-zag steering leaves eyes wandering at the time of municipal elections, one can’t help but notice all the roadside advertisements for the candidates.
“One thing that pissed me off during these elections,” said a local man who drives a lot, “was the size of the advertisements on the roadside. Many were the size of an A4! Who the hell can see anything from that when driving a car? The only name I remember was Eero Mulli, and that’s only because I must have seen it a 100 times and the peculiar name stuck with me.”
At the Finns’ election party at Little Finlandia the mood was sour when midnight was approcahing. Some were drinking white wine with both hands.
Miko Bergbom, 29, one of the younger politicians, said that he hadn’t had the time to read the latest updates on the Finnish media speculating what the devastating defeat in the municipal elections could possibly mean for the party’s future.
“One thing,” he said, “is for sure.” “We will not be the ones lying down in the Lake of Fire!”
The Finns Party’s election night could be considered historical in this pavillion. It will be the last election party held in the temporary Little Finlandia, which many consider an “architectual pearl,” and has been the setting for congresses, festivals, concerts and galas. President Alexander Stubb’s election night was held here. I was here. It was intense, or, “lively.” Comparing the Finns’ party to that night would be like comparing a tired Karaoke fest to the May Day, where the wine actually uplifts the mood.
But now the Helsinki City Council has decided that the main part of the Little Finlandia will be incorporated into a school, and the remaining part will become a locker room in a sports park.
And so much for that. “It’s all what we in Buddhist circles consider ‘emptiness’ anyway,” a monk told me recently. “If you look at the wall with a magnifying glass, it’s just particles and molecules.”
One weird aspect in the double elections was the number of rejected votes.
According to the Ministry of Justice’s election information and results service, more than 83, 700 votes were annulled in the county elections. This is almost double the number of votes cast in the previous elections. In the municipal elections, the number of invalid votes almost quadrupled to 41,700.
According to experts, the phenomena is likely related to the “nervousness” in voting in two election simultaneously. “They are nervous about performing in the booth,” said Arto Jääskeläinen, the election director.
Many times, the correct number is written on the municipal election ticket, but the same number is also written on the county election ticket; therefore, the second vote becomes one of many in the pile of trash.
