Rerun Sámi election in Finland prompts 22 complaints

The courts had ordered elections to be re-run with 65 excluded voters returned to the electoral register.

There have been 22 complaints about the indigenous Sámi Parliament elections held in June, which were themselves a rerun of previous elections after the Supreme Administrative Court ordered 65 voters be returned to the electoral register and allowed to vote.

The Parliament’s Executive Board said in a statement that it would handle the complaints as quickly as possible, aiming to do so by the end of this year.

In the statement, the board noted that anyone who is entitled to vote in elections to the parliament can make a formal complaint about the results or the processes around the election.

The Supreme Administrative Court had ruled last year that 65 voters should be added to the electoral register and the previous elections rerun.

The Sámi Parliament’s decision-making bodies had ruled that these individuals did not have the right to vote in Sámi elections, but were effectively overruled by the Finnish courts.

The President of the Sámi Parliament, Pirita Näkkäläjärvi, has urged the government to push through a law on the Sámi Parliament that reforms the criteria to vote and was formulated in collaboration with the parliament.

Related stories from around the North: 

Canada: Family hopeful after minister says Indigenous people have right to move freely, CBC News

Finland: Finnish Court annuls 2023 Sámi elections, The Independent Barents Observer

Norway: Silje Karine Muotka is new President of the Sámi Parliament in Norway, The Independent Barents Observer