If underage residents were to decide, the Centre, Social Democrats and Finns parties would be the winners in next month's municipal elections, according to results from the Youth Election 2021.
Nearly 27,000 young voters from schools, colleges, vocational schools and youth councils from 150 municipalities across the country participated in the shadow election.
Almost 20 percent of those young voters gave their support to candidates from the Centre, a party known for its rural base and agriculture sector-friendly policies.
That result may be surprising to some, as Yle's latest monthly party support polls for eligible voters showed less than 12 percent support for the Centre.
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"It was a pleasant surprise," the party's vice president Petri Honkonen told Yle on Wednesday morning, saying that he thinks the victory was due to several factors, including the party's themes focusing on young people's well being and mental health issues.
"The main reason is probably that we have many candidates that are under the age of 30. Young people are likely able to identify with younger candidates," Honkonen said on Yle TV1's breakfast show.
Honkonen added that young people are attracted by issues like education, well being and the climate, adding that he thought the country's voting age should be reduced from 18 to 16 years of age.
Centre-right NCP gets major support
Candidates from the business-friendly National Coalition Party received the second most votes in the mock election, with 19.1 percent support from the young voters. Meanwhile, municipal candidates from the eurosceptic Finns Party came in third place with 17.7 percent of the votes.
Among the hundreds of candidates, ones who were students or had teaching backgrounds received a good deal of support from the young voters. Among the 10 candidates who received the most support, six were either currently principals, teachers or students.
The Finns Party chair, Jussi Halla-aho from Helsinki, Taneli Arosara (Green) from Kontiolahti and Arttu Vuori (NCP) from Tampere received the highest number of votes from the youths. Halla-aho received 116, Arosara garnered 79 and Vuori got 71 votes.
Candidate Arosara, just 18 years old himself, said he was speechless about the results, given that he came in second place to the national leader of another party, Halla-aho.
"If you compare me with Halla-aho, then my, my... But the man in question has nevertheless been involved in politics for a long time and is even in Parliament, while I'm running in an election for the first time. It is a good feeling to know that young people trust you," he said adding that he thinks a lot of the support was due to his own youthful age.
Broader results
The average age of the candidates chosen by the young voters was 46. Sixty percent of those candidates were men, with 40 percent women.
The Green Party took fourth place in the informal race, with 13.2 percent of the vote, while the Social Democrats trailed by a couple of points at 11.8 percent, with Left Alliance candidates garnering 5.6 percent of the votes.
The Christian Democrats received 3.7 percent of votes, while the Swedish People's Party drew 2.8 percent. In the final two spots were the Movement Now and Feminist parties, which received 1.9 and 1.0 percent, respectively.
Young people want to be heard
A big issue for the young voters in the shadow municipal election was well being during the epidemic.
"It is difficult for people to get access to therapy at the moment and that should be improved, in my opinion," said Helsinki secondary school student Erika Luhtinen. Another young voter, Gloria Sydänmaa, said she thought candidates should pay attention to young people.
"Youths have had a difficult time during the coronavirus epidemic. Young people's mental health needs to be improved," she said.
Iida-Stiina Suihkonen said she appreciated that potential decision makers were paying attention to the opinions of young people.
"We want to emphasise that there is a difference between the needs of young people and adult decision makers. They shouldn't just say 'this is what youths want, this is what they think.' Instead it's a good idea to ask young people what they think would be good," Suihkonen said.
The Youth Election 2021 was a collaborative effort with the National Youth Council Allianssi, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Education and Culture, the National Board of Education, the Association for Teachers of History and Social Studies HYOL, Yle News Class and the Association of Finnish Municipalities.
According to organisers, the aim of the Youth Election is to teach young people about elections, candidates and democracy and provide them with the experience of voting.