Late surge in support puts Haavisto in presidential runoff against Niinistö

Paavo Väyrynen

Paavo Lipponen

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National Coalition Party candidate Sauli Niinistö, 63, was the overwhelming winner of Sunday night’s first round of Finland’s presidential election. With 37 per cent of the vote, Niinistö will face the Green League candidate Pekka Haavisto, 53, in a runoff on February 5th. Haavisto collected 18.8%. Finishing a close third was the Centre Party’s Paavo Väyrynen with 17.5%.
      Absentee ballots had Väyrynen in second place, but votes cast on Sunday, the actual election day, tipped the balance in Haavisto's favour, and he cruised past his rival as the votes from the larger towns and cities of the south came in.
      In the capital Helsinki, for instance, Haavisto actually got more of the votes cast on Sunday than the moderate conservative Niinistö; the total tally of all votes in Helsinki gave Niinistö a narrow 2.7%-point lead there over Haavisto - 37.2 to 34.5%.
     
Niinistö was the winner in all electoral districts in mainland Finland with the exception of Oulu and Lapland, where Väyrynen got the most votes.
      Haavisto did well in all southern electoral districts.
      Väyrynen, who has run for president three times on the Centre Party ticket without progressing, was disappointed at his finish, which left him just 1.3 percentage points behind Haavisto, and it was cold comfort that the veteran politician improved on his party's rather dismal showing in Parliamentary elections nine months ago.
     
The Finns Party’s Timo Soini and the Social Democrats’ Paavo Lipponen fell far behind the top three, but they came home ahead of the Left Alliance’s
Paavo Arhinmäki, the Swedish People’s Party’s Eva Biaudet, and the Christian Democrat candidate Sari Essayah. Full results are in the linked article.
     
The election has broken the winning streak of the Social Democratic Party in presidential politics in Finland; an SDP candidate has consistently won the presidency since 1982, when Mauno Koivisto took office. His two six-year terms were followed by one from Martti Ahtisaari, and then two terms by the outgoing head of state Tarja Halonen.
     
     
The second round will be held on Sunday, February 5th, with advance voting beginning already on Wednesday of this week.
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  SUNDAY EVENING 22:45 Presidential Election - Sauli Niinistö and Pekka Haavisto go through to run-off in February; disappointed Paavo Väyrynen left in third as Finns Party and Social Democrat candidates snubbed by voters

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