Finns start casting ballots for April 14 general election

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Voters in Finland have begun casting their ballots for the April 14 general election to renew the country's 200-seat parliament.

Early voting began Wednesday in over 900 polling stations across the Nordic country of 5.5 million. Early voting is popular in Finland — over 1.3 million people, or some 32% of eligible voters, cast their ballots ahead of the 2015 elections.

The latest opinion poll, published by the Finnish public broadcaster YLE, showed last week that the main opposition Social Democratic Party would become the largest in the Eduskunta assembly with 20.1% of the votes.

It's followed by the conservative National Coalition Party and the populist The Finns with 15.8% and 15.1% of the votes respectively.

According to the poll, Prime Minister Juha Sipila's centrist Center Party would come in fourth with 14.4%.