Finland's municipal elections planned in April will be postponed until June over coronavirus concerns, according to evening newspaper Iltalehti.

The paper reported on Friday evening that Minister of Justice Anna-Maja Henriksson (SPP) suggested that the elections should not be held in April as planned, due to the worsening coronavirus situation.

Parliamentary party secretaries met with justice ministry representatives to discuss the matter on Friday. According to Yle's information, discussions on the matter are to continue on Saturday morning when a decision will be reached.

Iltalehti reported that an official announcement about the postponement would be made on Saturday.

Simo Grönroos, party secretary of the the Finns Party, told Yle that his party does not think there is reason for postponing the elections, saying that elections have been held in many other countries with worse coronavirus situations.

Justice ministry officials suggested in February that the elections could be delayed, but party leaders unanimously said they wanted to keep the original 18 April date in place.

Last week, Justice Minister Henriksson noted that there was a very high threshold for postponing elections.