YLE presidential election poll shows Haavisto rising to second place

According to Iltalehti poll, Väyrynen is lying second and in the run-off berth behind Niinistö

print this

A presidential election poll commissioned by the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE shows an increase in support for Green League candidate Pekka Haavisto.
      According to the poll, support for Haavisto stands at 8.3 per cent, narrowly ahead of Centre Party candidate Paavo Väyrynen who remains at 8.2 per cent. The support rating of the Finns Party’s Timo Soini is 7 per cent.
     
The YLE poll indicates further that Sauli Niinistö, the candidate of the National Coalition Party, remains the comfortable front-runner in the Finnish presidential race with 37 per cent support, having declined from the 40 per cent rating he enjoyed at the beginning of December.
      The proportion of uncertain voters has increased to 29 per cent compared with 15 per cent in November and 25 per cent at the beginning of December.
      According to the YLE poll, Paavo Lipponen (SDP) would get four per cent of votes, while support for Left Alliance candidate Paavo Arhinmäki stands at five per cent.
      The poll gives Swedish People's Party candidate Eva Biaudet two per cent support, while the rating for Christian Democrat candidate Sari Essayah remains at one per cent.
      YLE commissioned its previous presidential poll at the beginning of December. Compared with the previous poll, the popularity of particularly Haavisto and Arhinmäki has been rising.
      The survey was conducted by the market research company Taloustutkimus, interviewing a total of 1,464 persons at the end of December and at the beginning of January. The margin of error is 2.5 percentage points.
     
According to another presidential poll commissioned by the late-edition tabloid Iltalehti, Niinistö’s support showed a drop to 41 per cent.
      At the same time, Väyrynen has risen to second place with a support rating of 11 per cent, while Soini’s support has dropped to 9 per cent.
      The Iltalehti poll was conducted by Research Insight Finland.
      A total of 1,011 Finns were interviewed for the poll at the end of December. The margin of error is 3.0 percentage points.
     
On the current form, Sauli Niinistö would not be elected automatically on a first round of voting, but equally he would have no difficulty seeing off whichever of the other seven candidates lines up against him in a second round run-off. Advance voting begins this week, and the official polling day in the first round of the election will be January 22nd.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Poll: Haavisto rising, Niinistö falling but still front-runner (3.1.2012)

Helsingin Sanomat