Finnish presidential election, round two
Last Sunday there was the second round of the Finnish presidential election. With only two candidates, there seemed to be more vigorous campaigning and lots of talk for political alliances.
Two weeks of campaigning
Both candidates tried to maintain civil, albeit vigorous, discussion in various media debates. Halonen was prone to longer explanations and Niinistö to even one-liners. Some debates, however, asked questions about matters that presidents actually don't handle.
However, their various supporters begun their own mudslinging in various net forums and through text messages. Halonen was accused of being, among other things, immoral because of her past divorce and having been a single mother. Niinistö was accused of intentions of closing libraries. Major labour organization SAK also began a pro-Halonen campaign in workplaces. There were conflicting reports of the sales figures of the candidates' election memoirs.
Both candidates tried to get a support of the Centre Party voters after their candidate, prime minister Vanhanen, had dropped out. Centre Party is the former Agrarian Party, so both tried to assure Centre Party voters that they were concerned about farmers and agriculture. Even thought Vanhanen supported Niinistö, according to news reports opinion within the party seemed divided. At the same time there were fears that those who had voted for the other candidates would not vote again at all.
One particular media snippet; Six years ago there was a claim that the then-candidates' performance in the Uutisvuoto game show would have decided the situation in favour of Halonen. Losing candidate Esko Aho had actually complained that he had lost because he had had a wrong partner. (I watched the show and I don't think that previous week's episode was anything special)
(Uutisvuoto - literally "Newsleak" is a Finnish version of the British show "Have I Got News for You. Regular participants are poet Tommy Taberman and author Jari Tervo and in every episode they team up with one celebrity guest each - this time with different presidential candidates. IIRC, Tervo was teamed up with the winner last time and the loser this time.)
Another day in the same election.
I pre-voted as usual. My mother took care of the pre-voting in her former workplace, the local old people's home, in addition to her local committee. 34.9% of the electorate voted in advance.
Candidates' numbers were retained from the first round. In one of the previous presidential elections the numbers had been changed and the later winner, Martti Ahtisaari, had received the one the other candidate, Elizabeth Rehn, had used in the previous round. So afterwards there were claims that he might have received votes intended for her. That assumes that people would have used the same number out of habit, which I do not exactly agree. So, possibly to quell any complaints, candidates use their previous numbers.
The Election Day started slowly but more people begun to arrive after noon. Some committee members joked that a televised ski-jumping contest or other sports programming might have decreased the voting figures. We got just a bit more than thousand voters this time even if there were more pre-voters than in the previous round. The number of women exceeded that of men for more than a hundred for some reason.
This time I spent most of my time handing out ballots and stamping them. One previous member could join us this time but another had to leave prematurely due to worsening migraine (including numb hands - I do not have to imagine how that feels).
Visitors included the regular one who refuses to use a booth; the drunk who was more aggressive this time (we barely get him to leave thought now he did not fall a booth); and one possible attempt to vote for another. The newest of the election booths was also unstable and had a crevice one could lose a pencil in.
(Well, one visitor came in with a wool cap with a text "wrong medication" …)
The second round used brown ballots. The only drawback is that a weak pencil mark may not show clearly, but at least we had no problems.
This time, nobody in our district voted for "shadow candidates" - we expected that some of those who had voted for other candidates might have commented that way. Still, we received only couple of blank votes. And apparently someone slipped out with their empty ballot - another semi-regular thing.
So, president Halonen was re-elected with the majority of 51.9%. Voter turnout was 77.2%.
Unfortunately, for the next week at least, we will probably see lots of boring and futile analysis and explaining from various parties...
Two weeks of campaigning
Both candidates tried to maintain civil, albeit vigorous, discussion in various media debates. Halonen was prone to longer explanations and Niinistö to even one-liners. Some debates, however, asked questions about matters that presidents actually don't handle.
However, their various supporters begun their own mudslinging in various net forums and through text messages. Halonen was accused of being, among other things, immoral because of her past divorce and having been a single mother. Niinistö was accused of intentions of closing libraries. Major labour organization SAK also began a pro-Halonen campaign in workplaces. There were conflicting reports of the sales figures of the candidates' election memoirs.
Both candidates tried to get a support of the Centre Party voters after their candidate, prime minister Vanhanen, had dropped out. Centre Party is the former Agrarian Party, so both tried to assure Centre Party voters that they were concerned about farmers and agriculture. Even thought Vanhanen supported Niinistö, according to news reports opinion within the party seemed divided. At the same time there were fears that those who had voted for the other candidates would not vote again at all.
One particular media snippet; Six years ago there was a claim that the then-candidates' performance in the Uutisvuoto game show would have decided the situation in favour of Halonen. Losing candidate Esko Aho had actually complained that he had lost because he had had a wrong partner. (I watched the show and I don't think that previous week's episode was anything special)
(Uutisvuoto - literally "Newsleak" is a Finnish version of the British show "Have I Got News for You. Regular participants are poet Tommy Taberman and author Jari Tervo and in every episode they team up with one celebrity guest each - this time with different presidential candidates. IIRC, Tervo was teamed up with the winner last time and the loser this time.)
Another day in the same election.
I pre-voted as usual. My mother took care of the pre-voting in her former workplace, the local old people's home, in addition to her local committee. 34.9% of the electorate voted in advance.
Candidates' numbers were retained from the first round. In one of the previous presidential elections the numbers had been changed and the later winner, Martti Ahtisaari, had received the one the other candidate, Elizabeth Rehn, had used in the previous round. So afterwards there were claims that he might have received votes intended for her. That assumes that people would have used the same number out of habit, which I do not exactly agree. So, possibly to quell any complaints, candidates use their previous numbers.
The Election Day started slowly but more people begun to arrive after noon. Some committee members joked that a televised ski-jumping contest or other sports programming might have decreased the voting figures. We got just a bit more than thousand voters this time even if there were more pre-voters than in the previous round. The number of women exceeded that of men for more than a hundred for some reason.
This time I spent most of my time handing out ballots and stamping them. One previous member could join us this time but another had to leave prematurely due to worsening migraine (including numb hands - I do not have to imagine how that feels).
Visitors included the regular one who refuses to use a booth; the drunk who was more aggressive this time (we barely get him to leave thought now he did not fall a booth); and one possible attempt to vote for another. The newest of the election booths was also unstable and had a crevice one could lose a pencil in.
(Well, one visitor came in with a wool cap with a text "wrong medication" …)
The second round used brown ballots. The only drawback is that a weak pencil mark may not show clearly, but at least we had no problems.
This time, nobody in our district voted for "shadow candidates" - we expected that some of those who had voted for other candidates might have commented that way. Still, we received only couple of blank votes. And apparently someone slipped out with their empty ballot - another semi-regular thing.
So, president Halonen was re-elected with the majority of 51.9%. Voter turnout was 77.2%.
Unfortunately, for the next week at least, we will probably see lots of boring and futile analysis and explaining from various parties...