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Who can stand for election?

The contact information for electoral alliances

Starting an electoral alliance

Templates for the electoral agreements

Information about the candidate list

Starting an electoral alliance in brief

Who can stand for election?

Members who are individual members (except for student members) of Tekniikan akateemiset ry (TA) or TFiF-TEK and who are approved as members on 1 January 2023 are eligible to vote and stand for election. Student members may not stand for election or vote in the election, as the student members of the General Council are selected by an open application outside the elections.

As a member of TA, you can stand for election in any electoral area in TA's electoral district, regardless of where you live. When you vote, you may only vote for a candidate in your electoral area. Your electoral area is determined by your home municipality info in TEK's member register on 1 January 2023. If you live outside Finland, you can vote for a candidate in any electoral area.

TFiF-TEK members stand for election in the TFiF electoral district and may only vote for candidates in that district.

What are TA and TFiF?

The Tekniikan Akateemisten Liitto TEK ry (more familiar as TEK) consists of Tekniikan akateemiset ry (TA) and Tekniska Föreningen i Finland r.f. (TFiF). At TEK elections, elections to both associations take place, and there are candidates from both associations. TFiF-TEK members stand for election and vote in the TFiF electoral district, and TA members vote in the TA electoral district, which is further divided into electoral areas.

Electoral districts and areas

The electoral district of Tekniikan akateemiset ry (TA) (66 seats in total)

Southern electoral area: Uusimaa (32 seats)

Western electoral area: Åland, Southern Ostrobothnia, Kanta-Häme, Central Ostrobothnia, Central Finland, Pirkanmaa, Ostrobothnia, Päijät-Häme, Satakunta and Southwest Finland (21 seats)

Eastern electoral area: South Karelia, South Savo, Kymenlaakso, North Karelia and North Savo (6 seats)

Northern electoral area: Kainuu, Lapland and Northern Ostrobothnia (7 seats)

The TFiF electoral district covers the whole of Finland (4 seats)

How do candidates stand for election?

Registration of candidates for elections begins on 10 January 2023 at 9.00 and ends on 6 February 2023 at 12.00. Candidates will be sent confirmation of candidacy on 13 February 2023.

Candidates always stand for election through an electoral alliance. You can contact one of the current General Council groups for further information or you can found your own electoral alliance. Read more about the current General Council groups' views for TEK's future in this gallup.

Starting an electoral alliance

At least three members of Tekniikan Akateemiset ry (TA) or three TFiF-TEK members who are eligible to stand for election may establish an electoral alliance. Members who are individual members (except for student members) of Tekniikan akateemiset ry (TA) or TFiF-TEK and who are approved as members on 1 January 2023 are eligible to stand for election. Member can only be the founder in one electoral alliance, meaning the same people cannot found multiple electoral alliances. 

In practice, members establish an electoral alliance by signing an agreement; the templates are available here. Vaaliliiton sopimuskirja is the template for electoral alliances, Vaalirenkaan sopimuskirja is the template for electoral coalitions. In the TA electoral district, the electoral alliance must choose in their agreement all electoral areas (southern/western/eastern/northern) in which the electoral alliance is putting forward candidates. 

The agreement must be signed by hand and delivered to the TEK office no later than 6 February 2023 at 12.00. You can submit the agreement on paper personally (TEK info, Ratavartijankatu 2 A, 00520 Helsinki) or scan the signed agreement and email it to election@tek.fi.

An electronic candidate registration tool is used for the elections. An electoral alliance may request credentials for the tool in its agreement. It is thus worth submitting the agreement as early as possible to allow the electoral alliance to use the electronic candidate registration tool.

If they wish, electoral alliances may join an electoral coalition in their own district. The electoral coalition agreement (Vaalirenkaan sopimuskirja) must also be submitted in an equivalent manner, signed by hand, to the TEK office or by email to election@tek.fi by 6 February 2023 at 12.00.

In addition, an electoral alliance must submit a list of its own candidates by 6 February 2023 at 12.00.

Electoral alliance and electoral coalition agreements

An electoral alliance is established either in the Tekniikan Akateemiset ry (TA) or the Tekniska Föreningen i Finland r.f. (TFiF) electoral district, depending on whether the electoral alliance members are members of TA or TFiF-TEK. All of the electoral alliance’s candidates must be from the same district. The district is chosen in the electoral alliance agreement (Vaaliliiton sopimuskirja). 

The Tekniikan Akateemiset ry (TA) electoral district is divided into four electoral areas. The electoral alliance must choose in their agreement all electoral areas (southern/western/eastern/northern) in which the electoral alliance is putting forward candidates. The alliance doesn't have to get candidates to all chosen areas. 

Candidate list

In addition to the agreement, an electoral alliance must submit a candidate list containing information about their candidates. An electoral alliance must return only one candidate list, either via the electronic candidate registration tool or on paper to the TEK office by 6 February 2023 at 12.00.

The electoral alliance may put forward as candidates twice the total number of representative seats to be filled in each electoral area plus one candidate, for possible deputy membership. Example: if the electoral area elects 5 members, the electoral alliance may put forward 5 + 5 + 1 = 11 candidates.

No one may stand for election for more than once in the same election.

Maximum number of candidates in the electoral areas of TA's district and in TFiF's electoral district

• Southern electoral area 65 candidates 
• Western electoral area 43 candidates
• Eastern electoral area 13 candidates
• Northern electoral area 15 candidates
• TFiF's electoral district 9 candidates 

Electronic candidate registration tool

An electronic candidate registration tool is used for TEK elections. An electoral alliance requests credentials for the tool in its agreement (Vaaliliiton sopimuskirja), which is recommended to submit as early as possible to the TEK office.

Starting on 10 January, we will send credentials for electronic candidate registration tool to the persons who are named in the electoral alliance’s agreement and who have requested credentials in the agreement. The decision to use the electronic candidate registration tool is specific to electoral alliance and in the TA district applies to all electoral areas. 

If you request credentials for the electronic candidate registration system in your electoral alliance’s agreement, the electronic candidate list is the valid candidate list, unless the electoral alliance has expressly stated before the candidate registration deadline that it will not use the electronic system. The electoral alliance’s electoral officer must submit a written statement to the TEK office by 6 February 2023 at 12.00. If no statement is provided, the electronic list is considered to be valid.  

Submission of the candidate list to the TEK office

The candidate list may be returned via the electronic candidate registration tool or on paper to the TEK office by 6 February 2023 at 12.00.

If you use the electronic candidate registration tool, the system closes automatically on 6 February 2023 at 12.00 and forwards the candidate lists it holds at that time to TEK.

If you submit the candidate list on paper to the TEK office, the list submitted last is the valid one. If you wish to add names to the list, you must have all the electoral alliances' candidates’ names, including those of candidates on possible previous lists.

If an error is detected in the submitted list, the representative of the Election Committee will contact the electoral officer. The electoral officer must be available by phone or text message on 6 February 2023 from 12:00 to 14:00. If the officer cannot be reached with two messages sent every 15 minutes, extra names will be removed from the list by drawing lots using Excel's random function.

Candidates’ details for the candidate list

The following information is required for a candidate list of all candidates compiled by the electoral officer:

• Given names and surname
• Date of birth
• Email address
• Phone number

All aforementioned information about candidates must be submitted for successful candidate registration.

The following information of the candidates is published in TEK's compilation list of candidates and other election communications:

• First name and surname (based on the details in OmaTEK member portal on 27 February 2023)
• Home municipality (based on the details in OmaTEK member portal on 27 February 2023)
• The candidate number issued by the Election Committee
• Electoral alliance 
• Electoral district (TA or TFiF) and in the Tekniikan Akateemiset ry district, the electoral area in which the candidate is standing

The candidates’ information is used in electoral communications, such as the electoral engine and the compilation list of candidates published by TEK. By standing for election in TEK elections, a candidate agrees that the following information will be used and published as part of electoral communications: first name and surname, home municipality, and information about electoral district and if applicable electoral area and candidate number. The candidate decides independently on the publication and use of other information (e.g. date of birth and contact details), such as in the electoral engine.

Read more about the handling of personal data in TEK's elections from the election's privacy statement