Finnish presidential elections move to second round

To finish off this short visit at the Wired Temples I thought I'd take a very short look into the current events of Finland, digressing from the main theme of Maltese events and culture.

Today was the day of the Finnish presidential elections. The president is elected in a direct vote, in two rounds, if necessary. About an hour and a half ago (at 10 p.m. Finnish time) the official count of the first round of voting was released. Out of eight presidential candidates no one got over 50 % of the votes, and the Finns will now prepare for a second round of voting in just two weeks' time.

The two remaining candidates are the current president, Tarja Halonen (46,3 % of the votes on the first round) and as her opponent mr. Sauli Niinistö (24,1 % of the votes), who is currently the vice-president of the European Investment Bank. I don't think this was much of a surprise, although I had sort of hoped for a historical first round election win for president Halonen. The other two "main candidates", mr. Niinistö and our prime minister Matti Vanhanen (18,6 % of votes) weren't really threatening her lead in the opinion polls and because the Finnish presidential elections are very dominantly personal elections instead of party elections, I thought tonight would've been the first time in Finnish history when there was no need for a second round. However, I do think this second round of campaigning will bring more clarity and depth into the discussions - debates with eight candidates tend to be a bit awkward.

In other words, current events in Finland will for the next two weeks involve a lot of discussions about the role of Finland in Nato, about the constitution of EU, about social welfare, about the role of the president in both foreign and national politics and so on. Luckily we here in Finland don't get those smut-campaigns that are so familiar from for example the US elections (for further interesting comparisons of the American and Finnish presidential elections, you can go here). I'm expecting a very civilised and tough second round, although I do still hope that two weeks from now, the result will be clear...

Anyway, I know I could go on about this topic for quite some time, but my time's running up. It's time for me to thank you all for reading my scribbles and most importantly, I have to thank Robert for having me as a visitor. Thank you ever so much, it was an honour!

My best wishes to all the readers of Wired Temples from the Northern city of Turku!