Finns resident in Spain were marked as non-eligible to vote in Finnish register

More than 22,000 Finns registered to vote abroad

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Over 1,000 Finnish citizens resident in Spain for part of the year have been registered as voters in Spain, and they have lost the right to vote in Finland. However, many voters have not been aware of the situation until they tried to cast their vote in an advance voting location in Finland yesterday.
      Many Finnish pensioners spend the winter in Spain, but return to Finland for the summer months.
     
The Spanish authorities have notified the Population Register Centre of Finland of the names of about 1,300 Finnish citizens who have been registered as voters in Spain. Consequently, they have been marked as non-eligible to vote in the Finnish register.
      According to the Finnish Embassy in Madrid, the individuals have been notified of this by mail last autumn, if their address has been available.
     
More than 22,000 Finns living abroad have been registered to vote in other countries. About 18,000 of them have registered as voters in Sweden, and about 1,000 in Great Britain.
      Arto Jääskeläinen of the Ministry of Justice says that these people should notify the Spanish authorities in case they wish to vote in Finland in the next Europen Parliament elections.
      Since confusion concerning the right to vote in the European elections has occurred also in Sweden, Timo Korhonen of the Population Register Centre suggests that the time for voter registration should be harmonized within the EU in order to avoid confusion.


Links:
  More than 22,000 expatriate Finns registered to vote in other countries - Population Register Centre
  Ministry of Justice: Right to Vote and Compilation of the Voting Rights

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