You can vote either in advance or on election day to decide who will hold the presidency for the next six years. On the actual election day, Sunday 28 January, you can only vote at a polling station in your polling district. You can vote in advance from 17 to 23 January at several polling stations across the city.
Lielahti K-Citymarket is a brand new advance polling station in Tampere. The city's busiest advance polling station in terms of voter numbers has been in Kaleva Prisma, where there are polling points on both the ground floor and first floor. The Frenckell building will again replace the advance polling at the Central Office Building.
– If Frenckell, for example, gets congested, Youth Culture Centre Monitoimitalo 13 in the city centre, very close by on Satakunnankatu, will be available. It has been relatively quiet there in the past, says Katja Korhonen, a lawyer and 2nd Secretary of the Central Election Committee.
– We expect a very busy election. If you want to vote at a quieter time, you should go to the polling station first thing in the morning or at least during the morning. The first and last days are usually the busiest, and it's always quieter in the middle of the advance voting period, says Korhonen.
To have your vote accepted, write only the candidate's number on the ballot paper, not other markings such as hearts.
– Personally, I always get annoyed when the ballot papers have pictures drawn next to the candidate's number. Ballot papers like that will be rejected, says Katja Korhonen.
Hand sanitiser will be available at Tampere polling stations, but there will be no other special arrangements against coronavirus.
A second round of the presidential election will be held if no candidate receives more than half of the votes in the first round. The second round will be between the two candidates with the most votes.
This means two weeks of advance voting and two actual election days. The advance polling stations and election-day polling stations will be the same for both rounds.
The City of Tampere offers parties and voter associations the possibility to display candidate posters on dedicated stands located in public areas owned by the city. In Tampere, such advertisements can be brought to the stands from 10 January. The period for advertising will end on 28 January with a possible second round on 11 February.
