The council members contribute to the development of TEK’s operations: they decide on TEK’s operational priorities and can suggest initiatives on new policies. At the beginning of its term, the new council will make a council agreement that will steer TEK’s activities for the next three years. You can review the 2023–2026 agreement here.

Among other things, the councillors decide on how the interests of TEK's members are promoted in the labour market, what kinds of member services are offered to them, and how the profession affects the society around us. The General Council elects the board and decides on financial matters such as, for example, the membership fee. 

In practice, the council members usually attend council meetings twice a year and participate in the activities of their own council group. At the beginning of the term, there will also be an extra organizational council meeting. Each meeting lasts 1–2 days. At the meetings, you’ll hear reports of TEK's operations and, more broadly, our country's economy and labour market.

TEK’s General Council consists of 70 members, 66 of whom are members of Tekniikan Akateemiset ry and four are members of Tekniska Föreningen i Finland r.f. (Engineering Society in Finland for Swedish speakers). TEK General Council also has seven student seats. The student representatives do not participate in the elections, but are selected through local associations in university cities.

You must either accept or decline the offer to stand for election by 9 February 2026 at 12.00. 

Candidate nomination starts on 9 January 2026 at 12.00. If you have been nominated as a candidate for an electoral alliance, you will receive a message from the electronic candidate nomination tool. You can accept or decline your candidacy via the link in that message. 

When you accept your candidacy, we consider this an acceptance of the processing and publication of your personal data as described in the privacy statement for TEK's General Council elections.

When registration of candidates ends, the TEK office will verify the candidates’ details, and the Election Committee will confirm the candidates. 

Successfully registered candidates will receive confirmation of their candidacy on 11 February 2026. 

If your candidacy is declined, TEK will contact you personally. 

When your candidacy is confirmed on 11 February 2026, you will also receive your candidate details, which will be published as part of the election communications. When the election results are announced, the number of votes received by all candidates will also be published.

Candidate details mean each candidate’s constituency, electoral area (in the TA constituency), electoral alliance, the candidate number assigned by the Election Committee, as well as the candidate’s first name, surname and home municipality. 

Please check your details are accurate no later than 25 February 2026 at 12.00. 

If you want to update your name or home municipality, you can do so on the OmaTEK member portal before 25 February at 12.00. If you have not received a message or you want to change your other candidate details, please contact us as soon as possible: vaalit@tek.fi. Please note that changes made to your home municipality do not affect your electoral area, i.e. which area's candidates you can vote for. Eligibility to vote and your electoral area are determined by the information in our register on January 1, 2026.

If you wish to withdraw your candidacy, please contact the TEK office at vaalit@tek.fi by 25 February at 12.00. The candidacy cannot be withdrawn using the electronic candidate registration tool after the candidate registration period has ended. 

The Election Committee will confirm the final list of candidates at its meeting on 25 February 2026. After this date, no changes may be made to candidacy status or candidate details. The Election Committee assigns candidate numbers at the same meeting and they will be sent to the candidates on 26 February. 

Read more about personal data processing and published information on the privacy statement for TEK's General Council elections.

An online election compass to help voters will go live on 13 March 2026. We encourage all candidates to answer the election compass questions and give a presentation of themselves to the election compass. If you wish, you can supplement the existing candidate details on the election compass with information such as your title, workplace, degree, contact details and age. You can upload a photograph and description of yourself. In the election compass, you can talk about the issues you want to advance in TEK. 

You can answer the questions and fill in information on the election compass between 26 February 2026 at 12.00 and 13 March 2026 at 12.00. We will send all candidates a personalized election compass link on 26 February. If you do not receive an email, contact us: vaalit@tek.fi. 

You can read the election compass questions in advance. Download the questions here.

We will announce the election results on 1 April by 15.00 and inform all candidates of the number of votes they received. At the same time, we will let you know whether you have been elected as a full member or a deputy member of the council. Deputy members may attend council meetings when one or more of the group's full members are unable to participate.

If you are elected, congratulations! You will be one of TEK’s council members for the 2026–2029 term.

After the results are published, you can wait for an invitation to TEK’s council inaugural meeting, which will take place in September 2026. You will also receive additional information about your new role later.

Competition for seats can be very tight. If you do not get a seat this time, we will inform you when the election results are announced on 1 April by 15.00. We will also tell all candidates the number of votes they received.

Fortunately, participating in the elections can open other doors too. You can take part in your council group’s activities even without being a council member, and council groups also nominate members for TEK’s committees.

We hope you find a way to be involved in TEK’s activities that suits you!

During the election, the TEK communications team will observe electoral quarantine in all TEK social media channels as follows: 

• TEK will not engage with/share/like any TEK election-related contact posted by a person or an account. 

• From 11 February, we will not engage with/share/like any candidates’ or candidate accounts’ content, regardless of whether the content is election-related. 

• Exceptions to the above are clear questions, which we answer at our discretion. 

• We will not remove factual comments related to TEK's elections on TEK's posts. 

• The TEK Facebook groups are not intended to be electoral platforms; therefore, we will remove all election-related posts other than posts by TEK in the groups that TEK is an admin of. 

• The groups of TEK regional societies/clubs can decide on their own groups’ content independently.

During the TEK election, data protection legislation and data protection principles of instruments such as the General Data Protection Regulation will be observed.

Read the privacy statement for TEK's General Council elections