BLOG: Your vote makes an impact!

The last few months, news headlines and TikTok videos are full of this. What? Well, parliamentary elections, of course!

Parliamentary elections are a hot topic day after day for a reason. Another cycle of four-year decision-makers comes to an end and new decision-makers are elected. The choice of new decision-makers is of great importance in how our society and country will be reshaped in the coming years. That's why everyone's vote, including yours, matters, because even one vote can decide the direction of our future.

Voting in elections and elections in general can cause gray hair if you are not that familiar with politics. Parliament's tasks can also be unclear and therefore influencing its formation is not of interest. In short; 200 members of parliament sit in the parliament, whose main task is to enact laws, decide on the budget and monitor its compliance, exercise authority in international affairs and elect the new prime minister of our country's government. What we students should be particularly interested in in the opinions of the new decision-makers is, for example, cutting back on education, increasing tuition fees, additional funding for education, and tuition fees for international students.
In the 2019 parliamentary elections, 59% of 18-34 year olds exercised their right to vote. This number is not enough, and it will not change if we do not join forces and head towards the ballot box. The most common reason for not voting is very common; finding your own candidate or party is difficult, which is completely understandable. Even when I was younger, I have thought about my own party orientation and the choice of candidate from election to election. The easiest way to choose a candidate who gets his own vote is to make election machines from different media. I can say for myself that over the years, several election machines have been tapped and information collected independently from the web. Why? Because I wanted to make a difference, exercise my right to vote and believe that it truly matters - because it does.

Choosing a candidate is not necessarily easy, but in the name of the future, it is important to do. In Finland, the vote always goes to the party, so it's worth looking at which party's ideas clash with your own. If you have little energy, but you want to make an impact, you can grab a candidate with student status from the party of your choice. The most important thing is that you vote.

The Finnish constitution says that power belongs to the people. In this case, power must also look like its people; young, old, young and old, students, professionals in various fields, housewives and fathers, dark and fair and so on. Parliament also needs us young decision-makers who know how to think about the fate of our society beyond tomorrow.

So exercise your right to vote and fulfill your civic duty. You can also vote together, i.e. take a friend under your arm and head to the polling station together. There is no need to stress the situation, because the instructions are very clear on the spot. I, and we Tradenomy students will be voted, so you vote too and we will work together for a better tomorrow!

Schedules for parliamentary elections:
Advance voting in Finland: Wed-Tue 22.-28.3.
Advance voting abroad: Wed-Sat 22.-25.3.
Election day voting: Sun 2.4. from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m
Confirmation of results: Wed 5.4.

You can find your own candidate from the election compasses:

• Yle
• Youth election compass