Finnish parliamentary election opens

Finns went to the polling stations on Sunday to cast their ballots in the parliamentary election.

There are total 2,611 polling stations in the entire country. Polling stations opened at 9:00 a.m. local time. After the closure of the polling stations at 8:00 p.m., the results of the advance voting will be published. Usually, preliminary results for the entire election are ready at 11:00 p.m. local time.

Results of a poll by Gallup Finland published on Thursday indicated that the election may have a higher turnout than four years ago. On March 7-13, almost 1.2 million Finns, or more than 29 percent of the eligible voters, cast ballots in the advance voting.

According to opinion polls, the Center Party appears to be strengthening its narrow lead heading into Sunday's parliamentary election. An opinion poll released by the Finnish Broadcasting Company on Friday suggests that the Center Party has 24.7 percent of support, the Social Democratic Party 21.3 percent and the National Coalition Party 20.4 percent.

The Finnish parliament is unicameral and comprises 200 representatives. Members of parliament are elected every four years. Every Finnish citizen who has reached the age of 18 is entitled to vote in parliamentary election. About 4.3 million Finnish citizens have the right to vote.

Source: Xinhua