Alexander Stubb, Pekka Haavisto enter Finland’s presidential election finals
The presidential candidate for the National Coalition and former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb will face the independent Green candidate, former Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, in the second round of Finland’s presidential election on February 11.
According to the preliminary calculation of all the votes published by the Ministry of Justice on Sunday night, Stubb received 27.2 per cent support, followed by Haavisto with 25.8 per cent. Jussi Halla-aho, candidate of the Finns Party and speaker of the Parliament of Finland, garnered 19 per cent support.
Since no candidate received more than half of the votes on Sunday, a second round of voting will be between the two candidates who received the most votes in the first round, namely Stubb and Haavisto.
The voter turnout for the first round on Sunday reached 74.9 per cent, compared to 69.9 per
According to the preliminary calculation of votes published by the Ministry of Justice on Sunday night, Stubb received 27.2% support, followed by Haavisto (25.8%)
cent in the 2018 presidential election. A presidential election is held in Finland every six years.
Both Stubb and Haavisto refrained from giving policy statements on Sunday night regarding
the final campaigns.
Speaking about campaigning with Haavisto in the second round, Stubb said there will be a civilised discussion about challenging foreign and secu
rity policy issues regardless of the opponent.
Describing the first-round voting as a very good result, Haavisto acknowledged some disagreements with Stubb but declined to specify.
He stressed that they share similar views on major security policy issues.
As supporters of seven other presidential candidates must now choose between Stubb and Haavisto, pre-first-round polls indicated that Stubb would likely win with 59 per cent against Haavisto’s 41 per cent in the second round.