Presidential elections were held in Finland on 15 and 29 January 2006 which resulted in the re-election of Tarja Halonen as President of Finland for a second six-year term. The first round of

voting Voting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, can engage for the purpose of making a collective decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holde ...

in Finnish presidential elections always takes place on the third Sunday of January, in this case 15 January 2006. As no candidate received more than half of the vote, a second round was held on 29 January between the two highest placed candidates from the first round, Tarja Halonen and Sauli Niinistö. Tarja Halonen, the incumbent, won the final round by 3.6 percentage points. The newly elected president formally took office for her second term on 1 March, and would have done so on 1 February, had no run-off been necessary (Constitution 55 §). Advance voting is possible in Finnish elections, and the dates for this in the first round were the 4th, 5th and 7th to 10 January.

Finnish citizen Citizenship of Finland can be obtained on the basis of birth, marriage of parents, adoption, or the place of birth. In addition, it may be acquired by application or by declaration to authorities. Finnish citizenship acquisition is based prima ...

s voting abroad could vote from the 4th to the 7th of January. An advantage to advance voting is that those doing so have a wider choice of polling stations (typically post offices, such as the one show
here
, whereas on the actual election day the polling stations are fixed, usually schools, libraries or town halls.

Candidates

The candidates are listed below following their candidate numbers. This list was confirmed by the Electoral District Committee of Helsinki on 15 December 2005. # (See below) #

Bjarne Kallis Johan Bjarne Kallis (born 21 March 1945 in Kokkola) is the former chairman of the Christian Democratic Party (KD), previously known as the Finnish Christian Coalition (SKL), and a member of the Parliament of Finland. Kallis works as the principal ...

(

Christian Democrats __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

) # Sauli Niinistö ( National Coalition Party) # Timo Soini ( True Finns) # Heidi Hautala (

Green League The Green League (VIHR, fi, Vihreä liitto , sv, Gröna förbundet), shortened to the Greens ( fi, Vihreät, sv, De Gröna), is a green political party in Finland. Ideologically, the Green League is positioned on the centre-left of the pol ...

) # Henrik Lax (

Swedish People's Party The Swedish People's Party of Finland ( sv, Svenska folkpartiet i Finland (SFP); fi, Suomen ruotsalainen kansanpuolue (RKP)) is a political party in Finland aiming to represent the interests of the minority Swedish-speaking population of Finlan ...

) # Matti Vanhanen ( Centre Party); the incumbent Prime Minister of Finland, #

Arto Lahti Arto Henrikki Lahti (born 3 May 1949 in Merikarvia, Finland) is a professor of entrepreneurship at the Helsinki School of Economics. He was an independent nominee for the Finnish presidential election in 2006, with themes including preservin ...

(independent) # Tarja Halonen (

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

; also supported by the Left Alliance); the current

incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seeking re-el ...

The law states that candidate numbers start from number 2. There are various justifications, such as preventing any candidate from using the slogan "number 1" for publicity, preventing ambiguity between the numbers 1 and 7, or preventing votes from being accidentally discounted because of a resemblance to a tickmark. File:Tarja Halonen 2003.jpg, Tarja Halonen candidate of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, winner of 1st round with 46.3% of votes. File:Sauli Ninisto (cropped).jpg, Sauli Niinistö candidate of the National Coalition Party, finished 2nd on 1st round with 24.1% of the votes. File:Matti Vanhanen 2008.jpg, Matti Vanhanen candidate of the Centre Party, finished 3rd on 1st round with 18.6% of the votes. File:Heidihautala.jpg, Heidi Hautala candidate of the

, finished 4th on 1st round with 3.5% of the votes.

Campaign

Themes

The main theme of discussion in the campaign preceding the election was the President's powers and whether they should be limited further. The

's candidate Heidi Hautala suggested that the President be completely stripped of all powers relating to foreign affairs and foreign policy, but this proposal met with fierce resistance from the three candidates of the largest parties – Tarja Halonen, Matti Vanhanen and Sauli Niinistö. Halonen, the main left-wing candidate and incumbent president, has further indicated that the president's powers should not be increased either, since it would, in her opinion, reduce the degree of democratic decision-making. Another important election theme was the threat of international terrorism and how to counter it. The main right-wing candidate, Sauli Niinistö, stated in the last presidential debate that he would consider Finland's membership ''"in a more European"''

North Atlantic Treaty Organization The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two Nor ...

(NATO) after 2008 to achieve such an end, but this was strongly rejected by the other main candidates. The only candidate openly embracing NATO-membership was the other right-wing candidate, Henrik Lax, of the Swedish People's Party. According to a poll carried out by the ''Taloustutkimus'' polling agency in July 2005, most Finnish people believe that NATO membership would increase the risk of international terrorism in Finland instead of decreasing it. This is also the view held by Vanhanen, of the Centre Party, and Halonen. Other themes included Christian values emphasised by

; stronger ties around the Baltic Sea and a stronger European Union by Henrik Lax; criticism of the EU by Timo Soini and the state of entrepreneurship and the returning of Karelia by Arto Lahti. Sauli Niinistö raised the state of work as another theme. His campaign slogan was "President of the workers" (''Työväen presidentti'') and this provoked many union activists and left-wing supporters and voters. However, he was also criticised for trying to lure left-wing voters to vote for him with this slogan. Niinistö's campaign stated that there was neither "left-wing work" or "right-wing work" but only Finnish work for Finnish welfare.

International attention

American late night talk show host

Conan O'Brien Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for having hosted late-night talk shows for almost 28 years, beginning with ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' (1 ...

endorsed re-election for Tarja Halonen on his show due to a long-standing joke about his resemblance to incumbent president Halonen. The skits, commentary, and mock campaign ads were seen on ''

Late Night with Conan O'Brien ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' is an American late night talk show, late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien. NBC aired 2,725 episodes from September 13, 1993, to February 20, 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity i ...

'' on

SubTV MTV Sub (formerly TVTV!, Subtv and Sub) is a Finnish TV channel owned by MTV Oy. The previous owner Alma Media sold Sub and its sister channels (MTV3, C More Max, MTV Ava Radio Nova and Sävelradio) to Swedish Bonnier and Proventus in 200 ...

, a Finnish cable channel, five days a week (with a brief delay). Markku Jääskeläinen, Halonen's campaign manager, noted that the frequent mention of Halonen's name was positive for their campaign, and the running bits on the show attracted international attention to the election.

Opinion polls

Here is a collection of latest poll results. The opinion pollsters' methods may vary, as do the samples and the conducting time, which give the differences. The total percentages may exceed 100% due to rounding. Two of the latest polls made by ''Taloustutkimus'' and ''Suomen Gallup'' raised discussion over whether Halonen would gain the 50%+ majority of the votes necessary to win the election in a single round. According to Helsingin Sanomat, the reason why Halonen's support has decreased in polls might be an increase in the number of people not wanting to reveal their favourite candidate: some of them plead to the secrecy of voting. The airtime and space given by the media for the candidates may have given the candidates with smaller support the opportunity to bring their opinions to the public, which might add to their support in the polls in question. On the other hand, the latest poll conducted by Research International (²) showed no change in Halonen's popularity between the three different weeks. The candidates and their supporters read their polls for their advantage. In Timo Soini's mind there was a big surprise waiting in the ballot boxes; he did, in fact, receive 3.4% of the vote, which was much more than the support for his True Finns party in the last parliamentary election. Tarja Halonen stated this election as being the only one showing such a big support to her: "The crossbar is trembling just right", she said on January 10, meaning the excitement of getting the majority of the votes. Sauli Niinistö publicly stated that there would be a second round between him and Halonen.

Results

Voting took place from 09:00 to 20:00 on both of the two election days, with specifically designated periods for advance voting before both the first and second rounds. Every

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

was required by law to have at least one polling station. Voting was organised abroad for expatriate Finnish citizens at Finnish embassies, consulates and honorary consulates worldwide. The candidates were voted for directly by the electorate. Votes were counted nationally. The counting of advance votes started at 15:00, and was expected to finish before 20:00, when the first preliminary results were announced. The preliminary counting of the election day votes began at 20:00, after which the votes were delivered to the central election committee in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

, which performed a recount. The definitive result in Finnish presidential elections is required by law to be confirmed on the following Tuesday at 10:00 at the latest. However, enough votes are normally counted during the first hour after polling stations close for an unofficial, but clear, result to be announced. A second round run-off was held on 29 January 2006 between Tarja Halonen (

) and Sauli Niinistö ( National Coalition Party). Opinion polls predicted a close election. A January 19 poll (HS Gallup) gave Halonen 53% and Niinistö 47% of the vote. By comparison, in October 2005 a clear majority of 70% would have voted for Halonen when asked to choose between her and Niinistö. Four of the six candidates who did not make it to the second round, Matti Vanhanen,

, Henrik Lax and

publicly expressed their support for Sauli Niinistö in the runoff election. This reflects a loose alliance termed ''porvariyhteistyö'' in the Finnish media, (roughly translated as "bourgeois collaboration"). According to Niinistö and Vanhanen, the main centre-right parties (the National Coalition Party and the Centre Party) had agreed about a year earlier on some level of co-operation to better compete with Halonen, who was supported by both the Social Democrats and Left Alliance.

First round results by province

Second round results by province

Finnish presidential election 2006 candidate posters Oulu

References

# Advance voting in Finlan
list of polling stations
# Voting by Finns livin

#

(2006), Ministry of Justice Finland. Retrieved 01 Feb 2006. # First roun

# Second roun

# Poll showing Tarja Halonen's large level o
support
in October 2005. # Conducted via telephone for YLE by Taloustutkimus on January 10 and 11, and the sample size was 1582 people. The margin of error is ± 2.5 percentage points. # Conducted for

MTV3 MTV3 ( fi, MTV Kolme, sv, MTV Tre) is a Finnish commercial television station. It had the biggest audience share of all Finnish TV channels until Yle TV1 (from Yle) took the lead. The letters MTV stand for Mainos-TV (literally "Advertisem ...

by Research International during the weeks 52, 1 and 2. The

sample Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of ...

size was 1200 people (500 on weeks 52 and 1, 200 on week 2). The

margin of error The margin of error is a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in the results of a survey. The larger the margin of error, the less confidence one should have that a poll result would reflect the result of a census of the e ...

is ± 2.5 percentage For Halonen and ± 3 for Niinistö and Vanhanen. # Conducted via telephone for

Helsingin Sanomat ''Helsingin Sanomat'', abbreviated ''HS'' and colloquially known as , is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. Its name derives from that o ...

by Suomen Gallup between January 5 and 7, and the

size was 1500 people living in mainland Finland. The

is ± 2.5 percentage For Halonen and ± 2 for Niinistö and Vanhanen. # Conducted for

by Suomen Gallup between December 27 and 29, and the

size was 1401 people. The

is ± 2.5 percentage points for the three major candidates. # Conducted for

Aamulehti ( Finnish for "morning newspaper") is a Finnish-language daily newspaper published in Tampere, Finland. History and profile ''Aamulehti'' was founded in 1881 to "improve the position of the Finnish people and the Finnish language" during R ...

and Turun Sanomat by MC-Info between December 12 and 29, and the sample size was 150 people. The margin of error is ± 1.55 percentage points for the three major candidates. # Conducted for Helsingin Sanomat by Suomen Gallup between December 7 and 17, and the sample size was 1400 people. The margin of error is ± 2.5 percentage points. # Conducted for YLE by Taloustutkimus, released December 9, and the sample size was 1400 people. The margin of error is ± 2.5 percentage points.

wasn't an option in this poll. # Conducted for

by Suomen Gallup, released November, and the sample size was ?, The margin of error is ± ? percentage points.

wasn't an option in this poll. # Conducted for YLE by Taloustutkimus, released early November, and the sample size was 1452 people. The margin of error is ± 2.5 percentage points.

wasn't an option in this poll. *

Constitution of Finland The Constitution of Finland ( fi, Suomen perustuslaki or sv, Finlands grundlag) is the supreme source of national law of Finland. It defines the basis, structures and organisation of government, the relationship between the different constitutio ...

, originally published as Nr. 731/1999 in the Statute Book of Finland, later amended

External links

Presidential Elections 2006
at the Ministry of Justice (Finland), Ministry of Justice's website *
Results
to be posted at a later date.
Vaalit 2006 (YLE)
presidential election pages provided by the national broadcaster YLE
MTV3 vaalikone
website helping to select the best candidate, provided by the commercial broadcaster

Presidentinvaalit 2006 (HS)
the election website provided by

, the biggest Finnish daily newspaper
Foreign media and candidates
in page of Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Campaign pages

Tarja Halonen

Heidi Hautala

Bjarne Kallis

Arto Lahti

Henrik Lax

Sauli Niinistö

Timo Soini

Matti Vanhanen
{{Finnish Elections

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

January 2006 events in Europe