Voting has started today. Current Finnish President, Sauli Niinistö's second presidential term is coming to an end.
Favourite by a small margin is Alexander Stubb of the National Coalition Party (roughly equivalent to the Conservative/Liberal party), closely followed by hugely popular Pekka Haavisto, Green Party but standing as an independent. Close on his heels in third place - according to the polls - is Jussi Halla-Aho, Basic Finns. Olli Rehn of the Centre Party is next with about 13% followed by Li Andersson of the Left (not to be confused with SDP) slightly behind him.
You can see the full list of candidates here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_F...ntial_election
If the person coming first in today's election polling has more than half the votes, he or she will automatically be elected as President of Finland (not to be confused with the Prime Minister who currently is Petteri Orpo, National Coalition) and acts as Head of State in a Statesman type role rather than actually governing.
I have performed my civic duty and voted for Haavisto as I think he has been a great foreign ambassador for Finland (for example, in getting women with children returned home from the Syrian refugee camps). Stubb was Prime Minister once for a short period of about a year. In true conservative-style, like Orpo, he immediately implemented all kinds of cuts. Stubb spent a lot of time in the USA in higher education so perhaps he sees himself as the natural defender of NATO and says he only came back into politics because of the Russian border situation and the Ukraine war issue. He is very ambitious and the press seem to be pushing him forward as their choice. I would have voted for Li Andersson, of the Left, very popular in these parts, where she comes from, but as she doesn't have a realistic chance of winning the election, I decided to vote tactically for my second choice. Not that I don't like Stubb but I think Haavisto has a more statesmanlike presence and diplomatic calming personna. The last thing we need is a warmonger and US puppet.
Voting ends at 20:00 tonight and then the advance voting result will be revealed. Rehn of the Centre Party is likely to show as a strong candidate as the centre party voters tend to vote heavily in advance, plus he has spent a LOT of money on electioneering. Educated at Oxford. I usually vote Centre Party due to my rural roots; it is traditionally, as in Norway and Sweden, the party that represents farmers and is quite left wing except their constitution is strongly anti-communist. Given mass urbanisation these days with people moving to metropolitan areas, it is not such a big party as it once was. The last Centre Party president was Urho Kekkonen, who was incumbent from 1956 - 1982, an astonishing long period of time. As for Halla-Aho he is considered very learned but comes across as a bit crazy, so it is doubtful he will sneak through, but you never know, as the Basic Finns, a relatively new populist right wing party, has made tremendous gains politically, and is currently in coalition with the National Coalition Party in government, having been pipped at the post by a very small margin. (Think UKIP.)
If, as is expected, the leading candidate gets less than half of the electoral votes, then there will be a second round of elections 11 February. Haavisto came second last time around to Niinistö.
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