9,409 votes cast from abroad

A total of 9,409 voters visited Finnish diplomatic missions abroad and cast their votes in the just held municipal elections during advance voting, said an official press release.

The number is higher than that in the 2012 municipal elections, when 8,267 votes were cast from abroad.

The advance voting was arranged at 125 polling stations in 78 countries on March 29 to April 1.

Furthermore, crew members of Finnish ships were provided with the opportunity to vote in advance on board. Around 200 crew members of ships used this opportunity.

Advance voting was also arranged at the bases of Finnish crisis management forces in Iraq and Lebanon.

By far the highest number of advance votes was cast in Spain, where a total of 3,342 voters visited various advance polling stations around the country. The second highest number of voters was recorded in the United States, where 515 persons cast their votes. Belgium with 468 advance voters came in the third place.

In total, 1,169,314 votes, i.e., 26.6% of the total 2,582,666 votes, were cast in advance.

In Finland, the advance voting was held also from March 29 to April 4.