Majority of first-round voters lost no time in choosing their candidates

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A survey commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat and conducted by Suomen Gallup indicates that almost two thirds of all voters having cast their ballots in the first round of the Presidential elections 2006 had lost no time in choosing their candidates.
      Just 22 percent of the voters made their decisions during the final few days, on day they went to vote, or as late as in a voting booth.
      Almost one in three citizens having voted on the actual election day on January 15th had chosen their candidates during the last few days prior to the election. This represents some half a million voters.
      Proportionally, the candidate of the National Coalition Party, Sauli Niiinistö apparently benefited more from these late decision-makers than the SDP/Left Alliance candidate Tarja Halonen or the Centre Party candidate Matti Vanhanen.
     
Among those citizens who went to cast their votes on the actual election day, Sunday January 15th, some 30 percent were late decision-makers. In comparison, only 10 percent of the advance voters had decided on their voting preferences just before casting their ballots.
      The majority of the voters (some 66 percent) had made their choices from among the candidates in good time - as early as around the first days of December.
      Particularly advance voters chose their candidates early. As many as 78 percent of them had made their choice already by the beginning of December, whereas only 59 percent of those who cast their votes on the actual election day had made their decisions so early.
      On average, more late decision-makers could be found among those males casting their votes on the actual election day, among 25-to 34-year-old voters, and among managerial professionals.
     
The survey focused particularly on those voters who cast their ballots on the actual election day.
      The number of votes going to Tarja Halonen on the actual election day was clearly smaller than that during advance voting, while Sauli Niinistö received clearly more votes on the election day than during the advance voting period.
      More than 1.7 million voters cast their ballots on the election day on January 15th. Fewer than one-third of them - some 520,000 voters - were undecided until the last few days before drawing the number on the ballot-paper.
     
The results confirm that Niinistö collected more votes from the late decision-makers on the actual election day than Halonen and Vanhanen.
      Some 35 percent of those who voted for Niinistö on the election day had made their choice recently, whereas only 21 percent of those who voted for Halonen were late decision-makers. Moreover, a total of 28 percent of Vanhanen's voters decided on their voting preferences late. On the other hand, as many as 55% of those voters who cast their ballots for the other five candidates had made their choices just before the election.
      As many as 75 percent of those who voted for Halonen on the actual election day had decided on their preference at least one or two months in advance.
      The panel survey was carried out by Gallup Finland based on a multi-phase sampling. The respondent network had been selected to represent the adult population in Finland excluding the autonomous Åland Islands. The number of telephone interviewees was 1,000, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  HS poll: Close race between Halonen and Niinistö in Presidential runoff (19.1.2006)
  Runoff campaign begins; Niinistö and Halonen fight over Vanhanen's votes (17.1.2006)
  Advance voting activity now lower than in elections six years ago (11.1.2006)
  HS Gallup: Second round could be in prospect in Presidential Elections (10.1.2006)

Helsingin Sanomat