The Briefing
- Bill limits local voting to EU and Nordic citizens.
- Sponsors cite Russian hybrid influence as justification.
- Over 166,000 voters would lose voting rights.
A proposal to restrict voting rights in Finnish municipal and regional elections caused a stir in Finland’s Parliament a few weeks ago.
The initiative, introduced by MPs from the Finns Party (Perussuomalaiset), seeks to bar citizens of non-EU countries from voting, regardless of how long they have lived in Finland.
Under current Finnish law, foreigners from outside the EU can vote in local elections if they have lived in the country for at least two years. The new proposal would remove this right. If passed, voting would be restricted to citizens of Finland, EU member states, Iceland, and Norway.
The proposal has now been sent to the Constitutional Law Committee for review.
Targeting “Hybrid Threats”
The authors of the bill, MPs Sanna Antikainen and Sara Seppänen, argue that the change is necessary for national security. They specifically highlighted the threat of Russian influence.
“Unfortunately, our neighbor Russia carries out hybrid operations in many different ways,” Antikainen told Uusi Suomi. “Who knows what it might plan in the future regarding this issue?”
Supporters of the bill point to neighboring Estonia as an example. Estonia recently tightened its voting laws, citing similar fears of Russian interference.
Changing Demographics
The debate also focused on Finland’s rapidly growing foreign-language population. MP Kaisa Garedew noted that the number of foreign-language speakers in Finland has surpassed 600,000.
Garedew expressed concern that decision-making power in municipalities is shifting to groups without Finnish citizenship.
She noted that while Russian remains the largest foreign language group (approx. 102,000 speakers), Arabic (approx. 43,000 speakers) is the fastest-growing and is approaching Estonian as the second most common foreign language.
“Democratic legitimacy requires that those participating in decision-making share the society’s basic values,” said co-signer Sara Seppänen.
Seppänen argued that while EU citizens share a legal framework, those from outside the EU do not necessarily share the same commitment.
The Numbers
The impact of such a law would be significant. In the 2025 municipal elections, there were 166,260 eligible voters from non-EU/EEA countries. Voter turnout among this group was roughly 21.7%.
There are approximately 30,000 Russian citizens in Finland, though it is unclear how many meet the current two-year residency requirement to vote. Additionally, there are about 40,000 people with dual Finnish-Russian citizenship, who would not be affected as they hold Finnish passports.
