It’s for people to choose right candidates in parliamentary polls

The parliamentary elections will be held on April 2 when Finns will elect 200 lawmakers out of 2424 candidates for the next four-year term.

The advance voting in the elections, which began on March 22, will continue till March 28 in Finland and March 25 at Finnish missions abroad.

The elections is much significant this year as Finns expect to be a NATO member before this summer and the new government will need to play an important role in the new political atmosphere in addition to tackling the post-Covid situation amidst Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Although people are going through a fragile economic situation and a record high inflation in recent times, it is very important to cast vote for perfect candidates of proper parties for the country to move ahead in the right direction in the exceptional situation.

A progressive, anti-apartheid, non-racist leader with pro-European and pro-international frame of mind is very important for the country now and voters should keep it in mind in exercising their franchise.

It is the time to work unitedly and there is no option to divide the nation with populist sentiments amidst the global political and economical situation to take the country ahead.

It is also important for immigrants to select their suitable representatives as disparity, discrimination and racism still prevail in many sections of society.

Before casting vote, immigrants should have a clear idea of ideologies of the political parties and candidates as some political parties do play a pro-immigrant role, a few of them play a dual role while a few openly take position against immigrants and internationalisation.

The parties that openly think of working together for the betterment of the country irrespective of native and immigrant backgrounds can take the country in the right direction.

People need to identify the parties that do populist politics or play dual games. The party that openly speaks against immigrant and internationalisation can never take the country in the right direction.

At the same time, the party that claims to be modern and pro-immigrant submitted its immigration proposal in mid 2021 where it made a distinction between people based on Finnish origin and immigrant backgrounds. Party with such mentality can never be a good option, especially for immigrants.

Previous statistics show at the participation of immigrant-background people in national and local elections is very poor. But they should understand the importance of casting vote in national elections and play a proper role.

As working unitedly, irrespective of native and immigrant background, is important for the country, people should vote for progressive, pro-immigrant and pro-internationalisation parties and reject fundamentalists, zealots, and anti-immigrants.