Junkkari | The regional elections became a small municipal election – and that is why the mourning Mikko Kärnä remained on the beach

Something the essentials are summed up in a photograph sent by a reader from Kauhava on the evening of the regional election last Sunday. The picture shows the plain of the South Ostrobothnian field and the trailer.

The Minister of Culture and Sports is hung on the cart Antti Kurvisen (central) regional election ad.

The ad reads Curvy. No first name, no party. Only Curved and voting number.

There is no need for anything else in the plains. Everyone knows who it is.

Only the fame brought by a similar notoriety is really only possible Ben Zyskowicz (kok), who has sometimes campaigned in Helsinki with his initials BZ.

Antti Kurvinen has recently been in the midst of a strong upswing in the city center, as it has succeeded in bringing a strong regional policy grip to higher education policy through the decentralization of education units. The people of central Ostrobothnia will certainly be pleased that Kurvinen also played a key role in campaigning for the Prime Minister. Sanna Marinia (sd) in the autumn Veikkaus sähling.

But. Despite all this upheaval, Kurvinen was ranked 14th in the elections for the welfare region of Southern Ostrobothnia.

As many as six downtown residents got ahead of Kurvinen. Among other things, the nationally unknown people received more votes Esko Lehtimäki Teuvalta and Helena Tuuri-Tammela About Isostakyrö.

For both, it is essential to mention the home community. Tuuri-Tammela received 955 votes in the regional elections, of which as many as 777 came from Isostakyrö. Tuuri-Tammela received 40.7 percent of all Isonkyrö’s votes.

The same phenomenon was repeated in numerous other small municipalities. Votes were concentrated on one candidate from your municipality. For example, Esko Lehtimäki received 39.3 percent of all votes cast at Teuva.

Forever in the ongoing sote reform process, one key provocative has been to seek wider shoulders. Small municipalities are no longer able to cope with the costs of social and health services, so the responsibility for organizing services is transferred to welfare areas.

In last Sunday’s election, regional councils voted for these larger regions. An interesting feature of the election, however, was that although it was a matter of wider shoulders, in practice it was, to the greatest extent possible, a municipal election.

Or really a small municipal election. Votes were concentrated on the contract, especially in small municipalities.

The center can be blamed for turning the regional elections into small municipal elections. Namely, the most important election promise of the party was that the status of a sote must be maintained in every municipality.

The promise of the city center was funny in the sense that it tied the matter tightly to the municipal boundaries.

Local services are important to people. However, it is probably more important that the services remain as close as possible to the municipal boundaries.

On the other hand, it seems pointless to blame the center too much, as voters in small municipalities would probably have concentrated their votes anyway. Of great concern in many areas is the proliferation of services.

In this election, the place of residence of a candidate should be the most important selection criterion for many voters.

Here a list of candidates who received the largest share of the vote in the territory of one municipality. They did not receive much votes from other municipalities in the area.

1. Timo Peisa (central), Ranua, 75.2%

2. Jani Ylälehto (middle), Pihtipudas, 64.8%

3. Henrik Wickström (r), Inco, 64.2%

4. Minna Pellikka (middle), Keitele, 63.9%

5. Marja Tiala (central), Lake Lestijärvi, 61.2%

6. Kari Pentti (middle), Alavieska, 60.4%

7. Riitta Raatikainen (middle), Tervo, 59.9%

8. Eino Nissinen (center), Lake Kyyjärvi, 58.9%

9. Arja Harjunpää (middle), Karijoki 58.0%

10. Johanna Peltonen (kok), Kuhmoinen, 57.1%

The largest share of the vote in one municipality was grabbed by a non-attached person on the downtown lists Timo Peisa. Peisa received a completely incomprehensible 75.2 percent of Ranua’s votes.

Peisa is a recently retired specialist in general medicine who worked for 40 years as a senior physician at Ranua Health Center. It should also be mentioned that Peisa is a Member of Parliament, the former chairman of the center Katri Kulmunin appiukko.

Kulmuni from Tornio, on the other hand, was the rake of the whole of Lapland with 1,964 votes.

In many other areas, too, some MPs garnered the most votes. But as a whole, the nationally known names did not do very well in any way. An extreme example is the downtown MP Mikko Kärnänwhich was ranked 82nd in Lapland and thus outside the council.

Clearly, Local Services is such an important issue for voters that the manic nomination of a candidate is not the main selection criterion when making a voting decision.

The greater part one of the municipalities has central residents, which is probably due to the simple reason that the center is the ruling party in many small municipalities.

Although the election promise of the center for the sote status of each municipality was bizarre, it was clearly electoral tactical. The center managed to raise the voters of the small towns to the polls.

But there is also a risk to the center in that tactic.

Then, when the sote status of one’s own municipality is closed in the next few years, many voters may remember the promise of a regional election in the center. Voter anger is then likely to be directed at party-level national decision-makers.