Politics comes home in Finland's 'living room debates'

By Anna Ercanbrack HELSINKI (Reuters) - For voters bored by politicians spouting over-rehearsed platitudes on televised debates, Finland may have the answer: invite the candidates to take questions in your own home where you can look them in the eye. In the run-up to a national election on Sunday, dozens of Finns have hosted "living room debates", with parliamentary candidates from rival parties gathering at private homes to take questions from voters in the room, and sometimes many more connected live via Twitter. The idea was hatched by Riina Malhotra, a TV journalist in Helsinki who, at the last election four years ago, invited a handful of electoral contenders and a group of friends to her home to debate key issues over appetizers and a glass of wine. "I was familiar with the party slogans and party leaders' opinions but it was hard to find out about anybody else", Malhotra told Reuters.

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