Could someone please explain this to me?

[-TSS-]

It takes quite a long time, at least a month, sometimes even two.

One thing which is noteworthy about Finnish elections is that unlike most other European countries with PR we have an open list-system.

That means that we vote for individual candidates who represent party-lists. For example, if a party-list is entitled to four seats in an electoral district the four candidates who got most votes on that list get elected.

It is a stark contrast to the other European countries such as Sweden, Norway, Holland etc which have closed party-list elections. That means that the party puts the candidates in order of preference.

I think our system is more democratic. Each MP must get his personal mandate in terms of votes and often even ministers lose their parliamentary seats, which is almost impossible in closed-list systems because they are always at the top of the list.

Another aspect in our system is that apart from different lists competing against each other there is often  much harder rivalry within lists than between lists.

Edited February 18, 2017 by -TSS-

[?Impact]

8 minutes ago, -TSS- said:

One thing which is noteworthy about Finnish elections is that unlike most other European countries with PR we have an open list-system.

That sounds interesting, I will have to dig into it some more.

[JamesHackerMP]

I take it that in an open party list you rank the candidates on the list, as well as choosing that list?

[-TSS-]

No, I think you have STV, single transferable vote, in mind where voters rank the candidates. That system is used in Ireland.

In our system you vote for the candidate of your choice and that vote benefits the whole list which your candidate is on.

 

 

[-TSS-]

On 18.2.2017 at 10:09 PM, JamesHackerMP said:

As I said, math sux.  I had to retake statistics.  And college algebra.  God knows how I got through high school math classes with my sanity intact. 

So I guess you have an MP for every 27,500 citizens then, eh? That's actually not bad.  How big do you think it should be? How many citizens ought to be represented by one MP? Are they single-member districts in Finland or do you use some other method of election?

In an answer to your question about how big I think the Finnish parliament should be my answer is that since about 80% of our legislation is emanating from the EU and the rest must not be uncompatible with the EU-legislation I really don't see any point in there being a Finnish parliament at all. Therefore, I would abolish it altogether. A total waste of time and money and a useless talking-shop for mediocre backwater-politicians which all of our politicians are.

Nobody would notice any difference if Finnish parliament were abolished except those fat-cat politicians.

[JamesHackerMP]

Like the imperial senate, from Star Wars, lol.

Anywho, it sounds like there was a good reason for Brexit, judging by that.  the EU isn't even supposed to be a government at all and yet its mostly unelected structure mandates 80% of your legislation.

Can the people of Finland pick their party's leader in elections? or must it be the parliamentary party like in the UK?

[-TSS-]

I'm not sure if I understand your question but one must be a party-member to be able to vote for a party-leader in a party-conference.

Namely, there is a party-conference coming up with the True Finns, a junior coalition-party in the current government, and a lot of people have joined the party just to be able to vote in the leadership-election to oust the current party-leader.

That conference will be later this year and remains to be seen if the party-leader will be kicked out.

[-TSS-]

All in all, I believe in the idea that there does not need to be more layers of government than the central government and the local government. For me the very idea of federalism is totally alien. If unitary countries establish an extra layer of government between the central and the local that is simply wasteful.

If a country is very large and too large to work on my idea of there being a central government and a local government only then it is too large.

Edited February 26, 2017 by -TSS-