The Union of Freethinkers of Finland collects opinions of parliamentary elections candidates through its online candidate selector. Data collection started in 2007. The selector is made available every four years during parliamentary elections campaigning and voting. Candidates answer questions which focus on the status and teaching of religion in primary and lower secondary schools, and the status of the church in Finnish society, including taxation rights and the right to organise burial services and weddings. Other users can answer the same questions in the selector interface, and can search and filter candidate responses.
The data consist of responses given by parliamentary candidates and candidate selector users to questions of the Union of Freethinkers of Finland candidate selector / voting advice application.
The candidate selector questions included the national churches' special status under public law, religious denominations' right to officiate at weddings, publication of caricatures that criticise religion, allowing the circumcision of boys, status of religion in comprehensive school, and Christian broadcasts based on Finland's Public Broadcaster Act.
Background variables for the election candidates included first and last name, party, constituency, and Internet pages. Background variables for the candidate selector users include selected party, constituency, and date of use. The user responses were individualised according to IP addresses.
Altogether 655 parliamentary candidates (32.8% of all the candidates) responded to the candidate selector. 25 (13%) of the elected candidates responded. Altogether, the candidate selector was used almost 20,000 times.