Finland candidates are headed to runoff

HELSINKI — Former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb won the first round of Finland’s presidential election Sunday and will face the runner-up, ex-Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, in a runoff next month.

The vote largely centered on the Nordic nation’s new role as a NATO front-line country with Russia and the security situation in Europe, particularly Russia’s assault on Ukraine.

With all the votes counted, Stubb led the first round with 27.2% of the votes, while Haavisto, Finland’s top diplomat from 2019-2023, took second place with 25.8%. Parliamentary Speaker Jussi Halla-aho came in third with 19%, followed by Bank of Finland governor Olli Rehn with 15.3%.

The first-round election result will be officially confirmed Tuesday. The result will push the race into a Feb. 11 runoff between Stubb and Haavisto because none of the candidates received more than half of the votes.

Stubb, 55, and Haavisto, 65, were the main contenders in the election. About 4.5 million eligible voters picked a successor out of nine candidates to hugely popular President Sauli Niinistö, whose second six-year term expires in March. He wasn’t eligible for reelection.

Polls across the country closed at 8 p.m. Initial voter turnout was 74.9%.

Stubb represents the conservative National Coalition Party and headed the Finnish government from 2014-2015, while veteran politician Haavisto, an ex-U.N. diplomat and Green League member, is running for the post for the third time as an independent candidate.

Unlike in most European countries, the president of Finland holds executive power in formulating foreign and security policy, particularly when dealing with countries outside the European Union like the United States, Russia and China.

The president also acts as the supreme commander of the Finnish military, a particularly important duty in Europe’s current security environment.

The main themes of the election were foreign and security policy issues like Finland’s recent membership in NATO, future policies toward Russia, enhancing security cooperation with the United States and the need to continue helping Ukraine both militarily and with humanitarian assistance.

Finland’s new head of state will start a six-year term in March in a markedly different geopolitical and security situation in Europe than did incumbent Niinistö after the 2018 election.

Abandoning decades of military nonalignment after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland became NATO’s 31st member in April, much to the annoyance of President Vladimir Putin of Russia, which shares an 832-mile border with the Nordic nation.

NATO membership, which has made Finland the Western military alliance’s front-line country toward Russia, and the war raging in Ukraine a mere 600 miles away from Finland’s border have boosted the president’s status as a security policy leader.

As foreign minister, Haavisto signed Finland’s historic accession treaty to NATO last year and played a key role in the membership process along with Niinistö and former Prime Minister Sanna Marin.

Finland’s western neighbor Sweden is set to join NATO in the near future as the final holdout, Hungary, is expected to ratify Stockholm’s bid by the end of February.