Also Available in English

To start, apologies. When I set up my campaign page on Facebook I promised to also post things in English. I haven’t, this is the first. Sorry about that.
 
As it turns out, all this campaign stuff is more time (and energy) consuming than I thought. First time is a learning experience I guess. Obviously posting the first non-Finnish thing with just a month left until the election is not really good enough. So two things have to be said.
 
First, there will not be that much content in English. I have created a summary section where I will try to outline my thinking a little but the blog will only see a handful of English posts at best. There is simply next to nothing I could only address in English and after writing things in Finnish it becomes a tricky priority question to either do the same thing again or do something else that needs doing. So here we are.
 
But second, and I can’t stress this enough, my priorities have not changed. Not one bit. Services for and wellbeing of immigrants is one of my key themes in this election and in my politics in general. I even included an English summary in my campaign flyer to carry that point across. Come say hi at Keskustori to pick one up. :)

You can vote!

My actual point for this blog post however is to remind all non-Finnish nationals that many of you are in fact eligible to vote. It’s true! You don’t need to be a citizen of Finland to vote in the municipal elections. You only need to fill one of two criteria. Either 1) Be a citizen of an EU country or Iceland or Norway and have a Finnish city or town as your official residence or 2) Be from ANYWHERE else and have lived in Finland for two consecutive years.
 
Obviously if you are a citizen there is no question, you can always vote. But even most students who only spend a few years in Finland are eligible. So long as their official home town has been Finnish for two years. Only about 20% of the foreign nationals eligible to vote did so in the last election. So it’s clear that many are simply unaware.
 
So mark April 9th in your calendars! Tell your friends! Exercise your democratic right! And even better, vote for a candidate that cares about you and your wellbeing in this country.
 
Because I do. And so do many others.

If I haven’t met you personally and haven’t had a chance to say it:

Welcome. I mean it.