ODIHR to send assessment mission for Finland's parliamentary elections

ODIHR will send an assessment mission for the 17 April parliamentary elections in Finland. An advance team of experts visited the country from 25 to 27 January to assess the pre-election environment and preparations for the elections. The needs assessment mission reported that interlocutors expressed a high level of confidence in the conduct of elections in Finland and did not raise any major concerns. Nevertheless, most interlocutors stated that they would welcome the presence of ODIHR experts during the elections, recognizing that election processes can always be improved and acknowledging that ODIHR may contribute to these efforts. In this regard, the election process could benefit from closer scrutiny in a few areas, including the current electoral system and its potential shortcomings, the mechanisms for election disputes, the implementation of the newly-adopted regulations on party funding and campaign finance, and access of non-parliamentary political parties to the media.

As none of the interlocutors expressed any concerns related to the conduct of procedures on election day itself, the deployment of short-term observers was not considered necessary.