Finland votes, round 1

January 22, 2012 1:28 PM

Finland votes – as visualized by national broadcasting company, click Sivakoikaa! (Ski!). (About the candidates). First round of Finland's presidential elections has finished with Sauli Niinistö (conservative) and Pekka Haavisto (green) winning 36.7% and 18.7% of votes. If no-one wins over 50% in the first round, the second round will be held amongst the top two candidates two weeks later. Haavisto has steadily doubled his share in polls, where Niinistö has halved his share from his best polls. Among his other achievements in international peace and being green, Haavisto could be the first openly gay elected head of the state.
posted by Free word order! (26 comments total)

Haavisto could be the first openly gay elected head of the state.

1st openly gay head of state: Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir of Iceland.
2nd openly gay head of state: Elio Di Rupo of Belgium.
posted by furtive at 1:50 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]

Tuli iso antijytky!
posted by omnikron at 1:51 PM on January 22

I had a long conversation with a friend in Helsinki today who said that Haavisto has really come out ahead surprising everyone who'd been watching Niinisto's increasing popularity over the past year. Haavisto is not just openly gay, but green, supports social enterprises and all kinds of open and liberal, to paraphrase her take on it. She says its like a backlash against the True Finns and their shenanigans.

I'm hazarding a guess from her peer group that its the younger generation that are really backing Haavisto?
posted by infini at 1:51 PM on January 22

As prime ministers of their respective countries, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir and Elio Di Rupo are heads of government, rather than heads of state. Iceland's head of state is President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson and Belgium's head of state is King Albert II.
posted by Kattullus at 1:56 PM on January 22 [6 favorites]

Haavisto could be the first openly gay elected head of the state.

The state in question being Norway.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:08 PM on January 22

1st openly gay head of state: Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir of Iceland.
2nd openly gay head of state: Elio Di Rupo of Belgium.


Common mistake here. Neither of these are heads of state. In Iceland the president is the head of state, not the prime minister. In Belgium the king is head of state.
posted by Winnemac at 2:09 PM on January 22

Or Finland, or whatever. One of the cold ones with blond people.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:09 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]

Slowpoke.jpg
posted by Winnemac at 2:10 PM on January 22

Love the first link. That is how to report election results.
posted by Jumpin Jack Flash at 2:10 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]

Just noticed the tags - I see which way you've voted!
posted by infini at 2:15 PM on January 22

Besides, Edward II beat them both by 700 years...
posted by dash_slot- at 2:17 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]

And King David by 3000.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:40 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]

Depending on your definition of 'out', Oman might be a current contender. Though the post would technically remain correct, what with the 'elected' in there.
posted by hoyland at 2:46 PM on January 22

Yeah, I think that getting the majority of votes is the difficult part.
posted by Free word order! at 2:50 PM on January 22

The first link was entertaining, but for someone who's not familiar with Finnish politics (or language!), what are the general affiliations of the other six candidates? That is, which of the two finalists are they likely to throw their support to?
posted by psoas at 2:52 PM on January 22

Helsingin Sanomat's coverage of the results, with some tentative analysis and speculation on what's next.

Besides, Edward II beat them both by 700 years...

Nah. I'd bet anything there have been many cases of barely closeted monarchs since the dawn of time. [On preview: King David, really? I'm starting to wish the communist wolves that raised me hadn't burned my Bible.]

It bums me out to realize that it's 2012 and there hasn't been an openly gay, democratically elected head of state yet. I really, really wish Finland will now be the first country to achieve this milestone, but it doesn't seem very realistic, looking at the numbers. Still, it's fantastic to see how far my country has evolved from the insular, intolerant place I grew up in.

I'm also wondering how much Haavisto's sudden last minute surge owes to Väyrynen's (the third main candidate, who up till today was ahead of Haavisto in the polls) recent tone-deaf, offensive campaign ad?*) It seemed to be a clumsy dogwhistle for the homophobes - no doubt pandering to the "True Finns" voters - but in a happy twist, the attempt backfired completely and rubbed a whole lot of people the wrong way. Ha!

*) A nudgy and winky quip about a house needing a master AND a missus.
posted by sively at 3:19 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]

Haavisto even looks vaguely like Sweden's awesome Falkvinge. Oh wait. ;) Go Finland!
posted by jeffburdges at 4:03 PM on January 22

There are many interesting things about this election but one of the most interesting ones, and easily overlooked, is that

a) we've had the same president for twelve years (two six year terms being the limit), and

b) all of our presidents have been from the same party (Social Democratic Party) for thirty years, an era which now ends with SDP's Paavo Lipponen receiveing less than 7% of the vote.
posted by Anything at 4:07 PM on January 22

all of our presidents have been from the same party (Social Democratic Party) for thirty years

Hey, let's not forget that before that, we simply stuck to this dude for 25 years! Speaking as someone who, much to the amusement of the grown-ups around me, grew up thinking "Kekkonen" was just a synonym for "president". (As in, "Dad, who's the Kekkonen of Sweden?")
posted by sively at 4:19 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]

It bums me out to realize that it's 2012 and there hasn't been an openly gay, democratically elected head of state yet.

A lot of us don't directly - or even indirectly - elect our head of state. Of the nine countries where I think being gay matters least of all in politics (Benelux, Germany and the Nordic countries), six are monarchies.
posted by brokkr at 4:45 AM on January 23

I came across a vintage spread on Kekkoslovakia once.

Btw, Soini almost forces you to respect him - wish the rest of his party was that savvy.
posted by infini at 10:06 AM on January 23

The runoff vote between Niinistö and Haavisto is tomorrow, and Niinistö would seem like a fairly clear winner with opinion polls indicating a 64-36 lead.
posted by Anything at 2:05 AM on February 4

Live stream in Finnish
posted by Anything at 9:36 AM on February 5

Polls close and first results coming up after 20 minutes.
posted by Anything at 9:41 AM on February 5

Early voting numbers pretty much aligned with the above survey. 65.4 - 34.6 for Niinistö.
posted by Anything at 10:02 AM on February 5

President-elect Sauli Niinistö
posted by infini at 12:09 PM on February 5