—Representing left wing parties, 15 Kurdish candidates ran in Finland’s municipal elections on Oct. 28. The candidates ran for posts across the country, though none were successful. Conservative parties won the majority of the votes.

Seven Kurds ran as candidates for posts in Helsinki; eight Kurdish candidates ran for posts in other parts of the country. Kurdish candidates represented the Social Democratic Party, the Union Party, the Green Party and the National Party.

Municipal elections are significant in Scandinavian countries as municipalities play an important role in domestic affairs and society.

“It is important for different ethnic groups to run as candidates in elections and that’s what I did,” Binar Mustafa, a Kurdish candidate from Helsinki who ran for the Union Party, said.

Mustafa told Rudaw that she has always felt a responsibility to be socially active. “I ran as a candidate with the hope to represent refugees and the poor in Helsinki’s council of representatives,” she said.

Mustafa, who born in 1984 in Sulaimani, has been living in Finland for over 16 years. For the past two years, she has worked with a refugee organization.

Tara Twana, a Kurdish candidate for the Social Democratic Party in Sweden, said, “The increased support for conservative parties was the reason no foreign candidates, especially Kurds, made it.” She noted that refugees are among the least active in Scandinavian elections and the political process.

Mustafa says that this is true for Finland. “The level of participation in the elections among refugees is low compared to Finnish people,” she said.

Mustafa pointed to lack of education, social hurdles and language issues as reasons why refugees participate less in elections. However, she said the number of refugee voters was greater this time than it has been in previous years.

The victory of the conservative parties in the election disappointed Kurds and other refugees in Finland who mainly support the left wing parties.

Mustafa maintained that losing will not discourage them. “We will not give up. This is part of the political process. Winning requires more effort from our side,” she said, adding that her party put together a powerful campaign with great plans for the future.

“I believe that a victory for the leftist parties would benefit the majority, especially low income people,” she added.

Finnish people are influenced by Swedish politics and culture, and Sweden also recently had an election where conservatives won the majority of votes. Some believe this signals a new era in the politics of Scandinavian countries.

Another notable shift was a decrease in female candidates. In this year’s election, 22,000 out of 37,000 candidates were men. Some believe that the increased popularity of conservative parties accounts for this change as well.

Fifty-eight of Finnish people participated in this year’s elections. Votes for conservative parties increased from 5 to 12 percent.Rudaw