62,294 cast votes in advance abroad in 2nd round presidential poll

A total of 62,294 people cast votes in advance at Finland’s missions abroad in the second round of the presidential election, Ministry for Foreign Affairs in a press release on Friday.

Meanwhile, 220 crew members cast votes on board Finnish vessels in advance.

The number of advance voters increased by 6 per cent in comparison to the first round when 58,754 people cast votes.

There were a total of 219 advance polling stations in 89 different countries, located at Finland's diplomatic and consular missions or their offices this year.

The figure included the peacekeeping stations in Lebanon and Iraq. In addition, advance voting was arranged on board 50 Finnish vessels.

The advance voting in the election started on January 31 in home and abroad and in Finland it ended on February 6 while the voting was ended abroad on February 3.

According to the Population Register Centre, more than 263,000 people with a permanent residence abroad were eligible to vote in this year’s elections. In addition, eligible voters staying abroad on a temporary basis had the right to vote at Finland’s missions.

Finns who permanently or temporarily reside or stay abroad have been able to vote by post since the 2019 parliamentary elections. Postal voting is now possible for the first time in the presidential election. More than 10,000 voters ordered the postal voting documents. In the first round of voting, 4,091 postal votes arrived in Finland. The data for the second round of voting are not yet available.

As in the first round, voter turnout was the highest in Sweden, where 15,602 votes were cast. Spain saw the second highest turnout with 13,564 voters, followed by the United States (3383 voters), the United Kingdom (3170 voters) and Germany (2858 voters).

By far the busiest polling station abroad was in Stockholm with 6,026 voters. The three polling stations in Costa del Sol, Spain, also saw more voters than in the first round, a total of 6,535 voters. In the four polling stations in the Canary Islands, 3,941 votes were cast. In London, 2,129 people voted.

A total of 19,56,529 people cast votes in advance in Finland in the second round of the presidential election, which is 45.7 percent of the total voters living in the country.