The candidate matcher for HYY’s Representative Council elections cannot be published
NEWS
Voting in the Representative Council elections is currently under way. Voting is open 26–28 October and 31 October–2 November at 10 am–8 pm at vaalit.hyy.fi.
Extensive and critical flaws have been found in the candidate matcher for HYY’s Representative Council elections. Unfortunately, this means that we will not be able to publish the candidate matcher. Despite all efforts, fixing the problems has proved insurmountable, while new flaws also continue to be found in the candidate matcher. The candidate matcher is supplied to HYY and other student unions by the National Union of University Students in Finland (SYL). SYL, in turn, commissioned this year’s candidate matcher from Zeffi, a company specialising in online surveys.
The situation is extremely unfortunate, as the candidate matcher has played a particularly important role helping our members with their voting decision in previous elections. In the 2020 Representative Council elections, around one fourth of those who voted in the elections reported having found their candidate through the candidate matcher. We are worried about the effects the lack of a candidate matcher will have on voter turnout.
The flaws found in the candidate matcher have included the following:
- Incorrect candidate names.
- Missing candidate photos.
- Candidates who have filled in the candidate matcher in time have been missing.
- Incorrect candidate numbers.
- Candidates’ free-form answers could not be displayed.
- Comparing candidates has not worked properly.
Not being able to trust the candidate matcher to function as it should, we cannot make it available for our members either. We apologise for the situation.
HYY and the candidates received the candidate matcher behind schedule, which meant that there was no time left for testing it and fixing the flaws. This led to us only discovering the flaws of the candidate matcher during election week. As the extensive problems were discovered so late, it was no longer possible to commission and publish another candidate matcher.
We are extremely dissatisfied with the implementation of the candidate matcher this autumn. We will cooperate closely with the other student unions and SYL to ensure that the candidate matcher will satisfy our needs in future Representative Council elections.
Despite the lack of a functioning candidate matcher, we urge all our members to exercise their right to vote. Further information on the Representative Council elections, electoral coalitions and alliances and candidates is available on HYY’s election page at hyy.fi/elections and on HYY’s social media channels. The election result will be published after voting has ended, at around 9–10 pm on 2 November, at vaalitulos.hyy.fi.
Further information:
Mikko Kymäläinen
Secretary general
mikko.kymalainen@hyy.fi
