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Press release of the Advisory Board for Ethnic Relations
Multilingual election materials encourage voting in municipal elections

Ministry of Justice
Publication date 5.5.2021 9.35
News item

The Advisory Board for Ethnic Relations (ETNO) has published election materials in seven languages to raise awareness of municipal elections in Finland. These visual materials will be used to encourage multilingual municipal residents to participate in decision-making and vote in the forthcoming municipal elections.

The materials on municipal elections are available in seven languages: Finnish, Swedish, English, Russian, Estonian, Arabic and Somali. The materials have been prepared on the basis of questions that ETNO has encountered in its work: When can I vote in the municipal elections? Who has the right to vote in the municipal elections? Who can I vote for? Who can stand as a candidate? Why is it important to vote in municipal elections and what kinds of issues do I vote on in municipal elections? How can I vote safely during COVID-19? 

The materials are intended for multilingual municipal residents and voters. Organisations, municipalities and influencers can make use of the materials to raise awareness of the municipal elections and other influencing opportunities in municipalities.  

The materials are highly visual and they consist of PowerPoint presentations and infographics combining text and images. The infographics can be shared on social media. The PowerPoint presentations can be used in training and other events related to municipal elections and other influencing opportunities or to make short GIF videos, for example. 

“The mere existence of these materials is not enough, and that is why we hope that the materials will be disseminated and taken into active use,” Specialist Nina Suorsa from the Ministry of Justice and Secretary General of ETNO Peter Kariuki say. 

“Each individual, organisation and municipality can do their part, raise awareness and encourage multilingual friends, neighbours and colleagues to vote in the municipal elections. We hope that the materials will be actively shared on social media and that they will spur good discussion on the importance of municipal elections and the importance of participation by multilingual municipal residents in all decision-making.”

The materials support the objectives set out in the National Democracy Programme 2025 to increase voter turnout in municipal elections among immigrants and multilingual municipal residents and to encourage them to stand for election. 

See the materials for the 2021 municipal elections prepared by the Advisory Board for Ethnic Relations (ETNO) on the website of the Ministry of Justice.

Inquiries:

Nina Suorsa, Specialist, tel. +358 295 150 279, [email protected]
Peter Kariuki, Secretary General of the Advisory Board for Ethnic Relations, tel. 0296 150191, [email protected]

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Further information about elections in 31 languages is available on the Electionsfinland.fi website of the Ministry of Justice.

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