How I voted in the Finnish elections in Bulgaria

In my third week, on my day off, I made a trip to the Sofia to vote in Finnish elections. On the thirteenth of April there were regional and municipal elections in the Finland. You could vote in the elections if you had a municipality of residence in Finland, which I did because I’m in Bulgaria only for two months. These were already fourth and fifth elections where I could vote, but this was my first time voting outside of Finland.

To get to the Sofia, i first needed to walk the path to the village of the Cerovo, where I took the train to the city. In the rainy Sofia I needed to find the Finnish Embassy. It was a big building that housed the embassies of many countries. The receptionist directed me to the elevator and told me which floor go to.

In the Finnish Embassy I told that I wanted to vote, so they arranged the voting place. They told that I was the first voter of the day and they didn’t even know if anyone was going to come because the people who live a long time in the other countries don’t have a municipality of residence in the Finland. Some other elections as in the presidential elections where you just need to be Finnish citizen and over 18, there are so many people coming. In that case it would be important to have a form that tells you about your right to vote. It comes in the mail before the elections. Otherwise you need to fill some forms, like I did, but it was not so big problem because I was the only one there. The only obligatory thing you must have is identification card that has a photo, for example a passport.

Because there were two elections, I went to a voting booth two times. Both of the times I got the book with me where I could check the number of the candidate I was going to vote. I had already voted couple of times in Finland, so this was a nice, a bit different experience. After voting I had change to talk Finnish with the embassy employee and she also gave me some Finnish candy. When I left, she jokingly said “I hope we don’t meet again!”, because the most common reason to go to the Embassy is when you get in to some problems.

Juulia