Sámi parliamentary election coming up
Forty-five candidates are running for seats in the 21-member body, slightly more than in the last election four years ago. Voting begins in early September and ends a month later. There are more than 5300 eligible voters.
The Sámi Parliament (or Sámediggi) was established in 1996 to oversee Sámi cultural autonomy, which is guaranteed by the Finnish constitution. It cooperates with corresponding bodies in neighbouring Norway and Sweden.
I've been poking around the official Sámi Parliament website (fi). I have to say that this picture of the current crop of Sámi representatives shows that our MPs with their boring suits can't compete in the fashion department.
The election system is a bit unusual: The candidates that get the most votes are elected, with the provision that there needs to be at least three representatives from each of the three Sámi home municipalities. As far as I can tell there are no official political parties, which is a shame, because I bet Sámi parties would be awesome.
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