Finland holds presidential election
The polling stations will be open until 8:00 p.m
The presidential election has started in Finland with more than 900 polling stations opening across the country at 9:00 a.m. local time (1230 PM IST ), the Ministry of Justice said.
The polling stations will be open until 8:00 p.m. Immediately after they close, the Finnish Ministry of Justice will make public the initial results.
Finland’s former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb and former Foreign Minister and now lawmaker Pekka Haavisto are leading presidential election, the country’s justice ministry said.
According to the ministry, Stubb is scoring 28.3% of the vote and Haavisto – 25.8% after counting 61.1% of ballots. They are followed by parliament speaker Jussi Kristian Halla-aho (16.2%) and Central Bank governor Olli Ilmari Rehn (15.5%). Other candidates are winning less than ten percent.
Commenting on the preliminary results, Stubb said he is ready to face any candidate in the runoff round. “This is much more than I dared to expect. I have never been that grateful before. I would be happy to face any [rival] in the second round,” he told the Yle television channel.
Haavisto, too, said he is satisfied with the polling results and noted that the runoff voting with his participation is quite possible.
The justice ministry is expected to finish counting ballots within hours, however official results will be announced only on January 30. If neither of the candidates win more than 50% of the vote, the runoff election will be held on February 11.
