Finns have been eager to state their preference when it comes to the time zone that should be adopted permanently in Finland. An online survey on the issue received over 120,000 responses in little over 24 hours between Wednesday and Thursday. (Credit: Vesa Moilanen – Lehtikuva)
Finns have not wasted time in expressing their views on what should be the future time zone in Finland.
The Ministry of Transport and Communications has revealed that its survey on ending the biannual changing of the clocks received over 120,000 responses in little over 24 hours after the survey was opened on Wednesday.
The survey is hosted on Otakantaa.fi, an online service administered by the Ministry of Justice. It allows respondents to express their views on which time zone – the winter time, summer time or another time zone – should be adopted permanently in Finland.
Elina Thorström, a director at the Ministry of Transport and Communications, confirms that the number of responses is unusually high for a survey on Otakantaa.fi.
“The number is truly unusual,” she said to Uusi Suomi on Thursday. “The other surveys may not have concerned as many people as this. We’re now talking about an issue that will affect everyone in some way and everyone is able to comment on it.”
The popularity of the survey did not come as a surprise, however.
“The citizens’ initiative [for abolishing daylight savings time] received over 70,000 [statements of support]. We did expect that we’d be talking about these kinds of numbers, and we were prepared for it. We increased the capacity so much that the service will be able to handle such a large number of responses,” told Thorström.
