Finnish Presidential election going to 2nd round!
SUNDAY 21:55 - PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Tarja Halonen and Sauli Niinistö to face off in second round
Halonen takes 46.3% of vote; Niinistö with 24.1% wins runner-up spot from Matti Vanhanen
Tarja Halonen, Sauli Niinistö, Matti Vanhanen
There will be a second round of voting to determine who becomes the next President of Finland, between incumbent Tarja Halonen (SDP, Left Alliance) and the former Finance Minister Sauli Niinistö (National Coalition Party).
Voting in the elections to find a new President ended at 20:00 on Sunday. The results were to all intents and purposes in by 21:30, and showed clearly the decline in support for Halonen that had been predicted by the most recent opinion polls. She took 46.3% of the vote, and was followed home by Sauli Niinistö (24.1%), who thus beat off the challenge of Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre Party, 18.6%).
The incumbent President had scored nearly 50% of the advance ballot, in which some 1.25 million citizens or 30.7% of registered voters had cast their votes. On Sunday, she gained around 44% of the votes cast, while Niinistö by contrast saw his share of the vote rising to nearly 26%.
Behind the three major hopefuls, there was a sizeable gap to the Greens' Heidi Hautala (3.5%) and Timo Soini of the populist True Finns (3.4%). The other three candidates - Bjarne Kallis (Christian Democrats), Henrik Lax (Swedish People's Party) and Arto Lahti (Independent) - all collected no more than 2% of the votes, and only around 4% between them.
Election results (99.7% counted)
Tarja Halonen (SDP, Left Alliance) 46.3.%
Sauli Niinistö (National Coalition Party) 24.0%
Matti Vanhanen (Centre Party) 18.6%
Heidi Hautala (Green) 3.5%
Timo Soini (True Finns) 3.4%
Bjarne Kallis (Christian Democrats) 2.0%
Henrik Lax (Swedish People’s Party) 1.6%
Arto Lahti (Independent) 0.4%
Voter turnout was 73.8%.
For comparison purposes, advance votes were given as follows:
Tarja Halonen (SDP, Left Alliance) 49.6%
Sauli Niinistö (National Coalition Party) 22.2%
Matti Vanhanen (Centre Party) 19.5%
Timo Soini (True Finns) 2.6%
Heidi Hautala (Green) 2.5%
Bjarne Kallis (Christian Democrats) 1.8%
Henrik Lax (Swedish People’s Party) 1.4%
Arto Lahti (Independent) 0.5%
The Finnish Broadcasting Company issued its election projection shortly after 20:30, in which the indications were already that a second round would be required, with Halonen scoring around 46.5% of the vote, followed home by Sauli Niinistö, with Matti Vanhanen taking the unenviable third place.
The figures held up well in the final count.
The election will naturally not affect Vanhanen's position as PM, but the results could have an impact on the next Parliamentary elections, to be held in 2007.
We shall naturally return to the subject of the election in detail in our Monday edition, with analysis and the prospects for the second-round race, for instance whether or not the supporters of the beaten Centre Party candidate Matti Vanhanen can be expected to transfer their affiliation to the challenger Niinistö. Six years ago, for example, many National Coalition Party voters chose not to get behind the Centrist candidate Esko Aho, thus paving the way for Tarja Halonen's eventual victory.
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Some quick comments from me: I hope the centre party throws its full weight behind the Niinistö! Any one but Tarja!
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Originally Posted by Torment
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