With some 557,000 votes registered on Monday evening, the voting rate stood just over 17 percent, an increase of 2.5 percentage points from the previous poll. Kari Mäkinen, Archbishop of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church, said recent discussions on homosexuality and the church encouraged people to cast ballots. Counting continues on Tuesday.
Youths turned up at voting stations as actively as older people. This was the first time 16 and 17-year-olds were allowed to vote in the elections. So far, it seems teenage girls were more eager than boys to make their voices heard. Several young candidates were also voted into seats. In Raisio, near Turku in the southwest, two candidates under 20 nabbed positions on parish councils.
In some parishes, such as Kinnula in central Finland, the voter turnout climbed to nearly 50 percent. Espoo meanwhile had the highest voter turnout in its history at 14 percent.
Voting results will play a role in the future of the church as the elected officials will select the 64 lay representatives for the next gathering of the Synod.
Preliminary results from council elections of the dominant Evangelical Lutheran Church suggest that reform-minded candidates gained seats, at least in the large cities. For instance in the Helsinki area and Turku, a majority of those elected support the blessing or marriage of gay couples. More conservative candidates fared better in rural areas.