”I should not ask you to save democracy, but that would be nice” – Results of AYY’s Representative Council elections bring changes to group seats
Aalto University Student Union’s Representative Council elections of 2019 were held on 28 Oct−5 Nov. In the elections, the Representative Council of 45 members was elected. The Representative Council exercises the highest decision-making power in the Student Union. The Representative Council decides on the Student Union strategy, values, rules, budgets, policy papers and the budget of up to EUR 17 million in resource planning at the group level.
There was a total of 293 candidates, representing a 7% increase over the 2017 elections. Candidates were part of 10 different electoral alliances, plus one candidate who did not belong to any electoral alliance. The polling percentage decreased slightly to 33.39% from 33.67% in the last elections.
The end of the elections was celebrated in the election coverage event with students of business at Saha. The audience waited anxiously for the results until the end, as there would be changes to the number of seats in the representative groups. AYY’s Central Election Committee, including Chair Petteri Heliste, came to present the results.
Heliste told the audience that he was particularly pleased with the rise in the number of candidates: many of Finland’s largest student unions have seen a drop in the number of candidates, while in AYY there was a slight increase in these elections. Heliste believes this reflects the broader difficulties of democracy. ”I should not ask you to save democracy, but that would be nice,” Heliste challenges the new representatives.
The winners of the Representative Council elections include the Greener Aalto group, which tripled its seats compared to the previous elections. Pro Arte and Kylterirengas also increased their seats by one.
Kylterirengas | 15 seats (+1) |
Greener Aalto | 6 seats (+4) |
LUOVA | 4 seats (-) |
SCIsma | 4 seats (-3) |
CHEM | 3 seats (-1) |
Våga (ent. Polytekarna) | 3 seats (-1) |
Pro Arte | 3 seats (+1) |
Voltti | 3 seats (-1) |
Luja | 2 seats (-1) |
Vapaus Valita - Freedom to Choose | 2 seats (-) |
ARTS | 21,3% |
BIZ | 47,0% |
CHEM | 41,7% |
ELEC | 26,6% |
ENG | 30,3% |
SCI | 33,6% |
More information:
Annika Mällinen
Read more news

Student voice heard on Aalto Board Nomination Committee
Student of Architecture Suvi Vendelin is the first student to join the Board Nomination Committee of Aalto University as a student member. She attended her first meeting in May 2021 and continues on the committee for another year.
Why do we still celebrate Pride?
In honour of Pride Month, the rainbow student association GAYY's Board opens up the history of the Pride movement in this blog. The promotion of the rights and equality of gender and sexual minorities has been a long and rocky journey so far. By understanding history, we get a better picture of the current situation and which issues have changed and what still needs to change. Fortunately, society is becoming a better place, but change does not happen on its own.
TodAYY’s Housing Mail – brand-new newsletter for AYY’s residents
The newsletter for residents TodAYY’s Housing Mail responds to a need to inform the residents about current housing issues by email, which was brought up in the resident survey. The newsletter is published about five times a year.