Number of votes cast abroad reaches record high

Preliminary figures for the number of advance votes cast at diplomatic missions abroad in the second round of the Finnish presidential elections reached a record high of 50,367. This is 6 per cent more than the number of advance votes cast in the first round (47,780), which was the previous all-time record. The number of voters was up 30 per cent on the figure for the second round of the 2006 presidential elections at 38,849.

Vaalileima The number of Finnish citizens living abroad and eligible to vote this year was over 230,000.

In this year’s presidential elections arrangements were made for advance voting in 90 countries, with the total number of polling stations reaching 254, 17 more than in the 2006 elections. A significant number of the voters were tourists.

Crews of some Finnish vessels also had the chance to vote in advance. Almost 300 ship crew members cast their vote at sea.

The highest number of advance votes was again cast in Sweden (11,949), followed by Spain (8,308), the United States (3,568), the UK (3,239), Germany (3,096), Thailand (2,676) and Belgium (1,536).