Younger voters in particular have begun to rely on automated internet machines to help choose a candidate in line with their own political views. These engines search databases of participating candidate's responses to a wide range of political and personal questions. They then suggest to the user which politicians offer the closest match with their own opinions.

Twelve percent of those polled used one of the three main candidate selection sites, run by YLE, commercial network MTV3 or the daily Helsingin Sanomat.

Three quarters of those who did said that these sites helped them decide whom to vote for.

Sami Borg, a political scientist at the University of Tampere, predicts that the popularity of such online offerings among the young indicates that they will be increasingly important in future elections. In general he considers them a positive development for democracy, although he notes that they are overly candidate-focused rather than party-focused.