Political parties win more seats on the TEK General Council

The votes in the TEK election have been counted. At the election, the membership voted between 20 March and 3 April to elect 70 General Council members for the 2023–2026 term. The General Council is the highest decision-making body of TEK.

See the list of delegates and deputy members at the bottom of this page

The largest group in the General Council continues to be the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), which increased its seat count by two to 19. As in the last election, the second-largest group was Yhtenäisyys ja Teekkarihenki, which this time around won 15 seats. The third-largest group was TEKin Nuoret with 10 seats.

The National Coalition, Centre (Keskusta) and Greens (Vihreät) parties increased their seat counts by two each. The iTyö alliance lost the most seats, falling from 13 seats to nine. The Yhtenäisyys ja Teekkarihenki and the TEKin Nuoret alliances each lost one seat.

You can read about the changes in the power relations of the council groups at the end of the article

Electronic vote share up, turnout slightly down

Almost 54,000 TEK members were eligible to vote in the TEK election. There were 406 candidates standing. Turnout was 24.5%. That was a decline of 1.5% on the last elections.

The election was conducted as a hybrid vote in which each member could decide whether to vote electronically or by post. In total, 13,200 votes were cast. Of the total poll, 11,652 or 88% were cast electronically. In the previous election in 2020, 81% of votes were cast electronically.

The TEK General Council will hold its inaugural meeting on 7 and 8 September 2023, at which council members will also elect a chairperson of the board, first and second deputy chairpersons and members of the board. The General Council will serve for a three-year term, 2023–2026.

Top vote counts vary by electoral area

Marjo Matikainen-Kallström (NCP, Espoo) topped the polls in this election with 393 votes.

In the southern electoral area, the next highest polling candidate was Atte Harjanne (Greens, Helsinki) with 319 votes. The third-highest vote count went to Noora Laak (Left League, Helsinki), who got 223 votes.

In the western electoral area, the poll was topped by Tiina Mikkonen (Greens, Tampere) with 131 votes. The second-highest vote count in the western electoral area was achieved by Jaakko Stenhäll (Greens, Tampere) with 116 votes.

In the eastern electoral area, Risto Varala (Yht, Lappeenranta) topped the poll with 63 votes, followed by Petro Julkunen (iTyö, Kuopio) with 62 votes.

In the northern electoral area, the incumbent chair of the TEK board, Mari-Leena Talvitie (NCP, Oulu) topped the poll with 142 votes. She was followed by Mikko Merihaara (NCP, Oulu) with his 89 votes.

In the TFiF constituency, Jimmy Nylund (TFiF, Helsinki) got the most votes, 112, followed by Magnus Strandberg (TFiF, Espoo), who received 105 votes.

Baltic Sea received the most votes and over 9,000 euros in the donation campaign of TEK's election

TEK encouraged its members to vote electronically. There was an incentive of a €3 donation to an environmental cause for each vote cast electronically, and electronic voters also got to choose the cause they wanted to support from a list compiled by TEK.

The 11,652 electronic votes cast in the election brought a total of 34,956 euros for the environment, which is approximately 3,000 euros more than in the previous election.

The largest number of votes went to a donation for the Baltic Sea through John Nurminen Foundation. The Foundation will be getting a donation of 9,342 euros, with 3,114 votes.

The cause that came second with 2,102 votes and 6,306 euros was the Finnish Natural Heritage Foundation and a donation for the permanent protection of natural areas.

The third, with 1,703 votes, was the work of the Baltic Sea Action Group, and TEK will be donating 5,109 euros to this cause.

All the seven causes on the list received votes from the members and will be receiving a donation from TEK. You can check out the vote counts and donation sums here.

Changes in the balance of power on the General Council of TEK between 2014 and 2023

* The names of electoral coalitions and their constituent alliances have varied, preventing any comparison of seats won by these coalitions.