What is the Representative Council?

The Representative Council (also known as edustajisto or edari) is a group of ordinary university students who decides on the most important matters that concern the Student Union and all its members. The VYY Representative Council has 30 members. The council is elected once every two years in an election where any VYY member may enter as a candidate and vote. All members also have the right to come and observe the council’s meetings, which are held about once a month from September to May.

What difference can I make in the Representative Council?

The Representative Council decides on a variety of things, ranging from the membership fee amount, Student Union rules, action plan and budget to the election of the Board and choosing a Secretary General. The annual action plan directs the activities of the Board and staff, determining what the Student Union will use their resources on.

Who can enter the election as a candidate?

All VYY members who have registered as attending at the University of Vaasa and paid the Student Union membership fee! You can either start your own electoral coalition, join an existing electoral coalition or run as a non-partisan candidate. The choice is yours.

How do I enter the election as a candidate and what election documents do I need to fill out?

To enter the election as a candidate you must fill out the Declaration of Candidacy form. All election documents are available at the Student Union service office. If you have any questions concerning how to fill out the Declaration of Candidacy or any other documents, do not hesitate to contact the proxy of your electoral coalition or the Student Union staff. In fact, if you have any questions at all concerning the election in general, you can come visit the Student Union service office or send email to the staff.

What is a council group?

The Representative Council has 30 members. A majority of the members belong in a council group. Groups are usually formed by people with a common cause, such as a field of study or a political stance.

Who can create an electoral coalition?

Any VYY member can create an electoral coalition.

Why should I vote in the election?

Because the Student Union decision making is all about you! It is important that members use their right to vote because that is how we make the Student Union do the things that you and other members want it to do. The Representative Council election you can vote online, so even if you are not on campus or even in Vaasa during the election days you can still use your vote!

What are electoral coalitions and electoral rings?

Unlike parliamentary electtions, representative elections do not involve political parties, but rather electoral coalitions, which function in exactly the same way as electoral alliances in any other election. VAn electoral alliance can be formed either by an existing representative group or by any other group of at least two candidates who are eligible to vote and are members of the student union. An electoral alliance is established by filling out an forming declaration. Once an electoral coalition has been formed, it can form an electoral ring together with other alliances or individual candidates.

An electoral ring may consist of two or more electoral coalitions and one or more candidates who are not enlisted in any electoral alliance. An electoral alliance or candidate may only belong to one electoral ring. The forming agreement must be signed by the contact persons of the electoral alliances and, if the electoral alliance includes candidates without an electoral alliance, by those candidates as well. An electoral alliance is established by filling out  an forming declaration

But why?

In parliamentary elections, an electoral alliance refers to a coalition formed by political parties. In the RepCo elections, individual candidates form an electoral coalition as such, and there are no political parties. However, electoral coalitions function in the same way in both types of elections. The votes for all candidates in the coalition are added together, and the resulting figure is used to calculate the comparative figures for the candidates, according to which the seats are allocated. In the RepCo elections, however, electoral coalitions can also form an electoral ring. In this case, the candidates are first ranked within the electoral alliance by calculating their alliance comparison figures from the votes received by the alliance.

After this, the ring comparison figures are calculated. This is done by dividing the total votes obtained by the electoral ring in the order of the coalition comparison figures. The representatives are elected on the basis of these ring comparison figures.

The groups belonging to the electoral alliance thus receive at least as many seats as they would have received if they had not belonged to the alliance. However, by belonging to an electoral coalition, electoral coalitions in the parliamentary elections can raise the comparison figures of their candidates who are on the verge of being elected to such an extent that an additional seat in the representative body becomes available.

Representative council election 2025 of the Student Union of the University of Vaasa

Election announcement

The documents will be available on this page and from Service office later in Autumn 2025.

Instructions approved by Central election commission can be found below later in Autumn 2025.

Instructions

Instructions to candidates
Instructions to electoral coalition/electoral ring contact persons

Instructions on campaigning

Election forms

Declaration of candidacy - You may also declare your candidcacy by filling out an electronic Visma sign-form
Declaration of electoral coalition
Declaration of electoral coalition merge
Declaration of electoral ring

Combined candidate list

Candidates and combined candidate list of the Representative council elections will be published here in 16th of October 2025 at noon.

Combined candidate list and candidates of the 2023 Representative Council Elections.

Voting advice application

The voting advice application will be published later in autumn 2025.

The election is carried out with an electronic voting system. The voting days will be published on 4th of August 2025. The electronic voting system is open during the voting time, between 8-18 on every voting day.

To vote, you must log in using your univeristy login. 

If you have any questions regarding voting or the voting system, please contact VYY's Secretary General.

To vote in the Representative Council election, use the following link:
The voting link will be delivered here before the election period begins.

You can check the results of elections 2023 from the link below:

Results of the election can be found here.

The results of the 2021 elections can be found here.