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Two-stage presidential elections were held in Finland in January 1982. The public elected presidential electors to an electoral college on 17 and 18 January. [1] They in turn elected the President. The result was a victory for Mauno Koivisto, the first member of the Social Democratic Party to be elevated to the country's highest post, and his election meant the full integration of Social Democrats into Finnish public life and an end to the postwar dominance of the Centre Party.
Koivisto had been a leading public figure since the late 1960s, when he had served as Prime Minister for two years. During the 1970s, as governor of the Bank of Finland and, for a short time, as Minister of Finance, he had won the public's respect for the accuracy of his economic forecasts. His personality and considerable media astuteness also won him a very considerable personal popularity across party lines. Born in 1923 in Turku, the son of a carpenter, he fought in World War II. After the war he returned to his native city, and through years of part-time study, earned a doctorate in sociology in 1956. He was active within the moderate wing of the SDP, yet did not seek an elective office. He began his banking career by directing a large employees' savings bank in Helsinki.
Summoned again in 1979 to serve as Prime Minister, Koivisto retained the public's esteem and became a strong potential candidate for the presidential election scheduled for 1984. Seen by Centre Party politicians as a threat to their party's hold on the presidency after Urho Kekkonen's inevitable retirement, Koivisto was pressured to resign in the spring of 1981. He refused, telling Kekkonen that he would continue as Prime Minister until a lack of parliamentary support for his government was shown. Koivisto's survival despite Kekkonen's challenge was seen by some observers as the end of an era in which the president had dominated Finnish public life.
In autumn 1981 failing health forced Kekkonen to resign the presidency, and Koivisto assumed the duties of the office until the presidential election set for January 1982, two years ahead of schedule. He won handily, with the Social Democratic Party receiving 43% of the votes with a turnout of 81.3% --and 145 of the electors. With the support of some electors pledged to the Finnish People's Democratic League candidate, he won, with 167 votes, on the first ballot of the electoral college. His popularity remained high during his first term, and he easily won re-election in 1988. [2]
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social Democratic Party | 1,370,314 | 43.13 | 144 | |
| National Coalition Party | 593,271 | 18.67 | 58 | |
| Centre Party | 534,515 | 16.82 | 53 | |
| Finnish People's Democratic League | 348,359 | 10.96 | 32 | |
| Swedish People's Party | 121,519 | 3.82 | 11 | |
| Finnish Rural Party | 71,947 | 2.26 | 1 | |
| Finnish Christian League | 59,885 | 1.88 | 0 | |
| Liberals | 56,070 | 1.76 | 1 | |
| Åland Coalition | 11,119 | 0.35 | 1 | |
| Constitutional Right Party | 9,532 | 0.30 | 0 | |
| Finnish People's Unity Party | 994 | 0.03 | 0 | |
| Total | 3,177,525 | 100.00 | 301 | |
| Valid votes | 3,177,525 | 99.67 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 10,531 | 0.33 | ||
| Total votes | 3,188,056 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 3,921,005 | 81.31 | ||
| Source: Nohlen & Stöver | ||||
| Candidate | Party | First round | Second round | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | |||
| Mauno Koivisto | Social Democratic Party | 145 | 48.17 | 167 | 55.48 | |
| Harri Holkeri | National Coalition Party | 58 | 19.27 | 58 | 19.27 | |
| Johannes Virolainen | Centre Party | 53 | 17.61 | 53 | 17.61 | |
| Kalevi Kivistö | Finnish People's Democratic League | 32 | 10.63 | 11 | 3.65 | |
| Jan-Magnus Jansson | Swedish People's Party | 11 | 3.65 | 11 | 3.65 | |
| Helvi Sipilä | Liberals | 1 | 0.33 | 1 | 0.33 | |
| Veikko Vennamo | Finnish Rural Party | 1 | 0.33 | |||
| Raino Westerholm | Finnish Christian League | 0 | 0.00 | |||
| Total | 301 | 100.00 | 301 | 100.00 | ||
| Source: Nohlen & Stöver | ||||||
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Two-stage presidential elections were held in Finland in 1950, the first time the public had been involved in a presidential election since 1937 as three non-popular elections had taken place in 1940, 1943 and 1946. On 16 and 17 January the public elected presidential electors to an electoral college. They in turn elected the President. The result was a victory for Juho Kusti Paasikivi, who won on the first ballot. The turnout for the popular vote was 63.8%. President Paasikivi was at first reluctant to seek re-election, at least in regular presidential elections. He considered asking the Finnish Parliament to re-elect him through another emergency law. Former President Ståhlberg, who acted as his informal advisor, persuaded him to seek re-election through normal means when he bluntly told Paasikivi: "If the Finnish people would not bother to elect a President every six years, they truly would not deserve an independent and democratic republic." Paasikivi conducted a passive, "front-porch" style campaign, making few speeches. By contrast, the Agrarian presidential candidate, Urho Kekkonen, spoke in about 130 election meetings. The Communists claimed that Paasikivi had made mistakes in his foreign policy and had not truly pursued a peaceful and friendly foreign policy towards the Soviet Union. The Agrarians criticized Paasikivi more subtly and indirectly, referring to his advanced age, and speaking anecdotally about aged masters of farmhouses, who had not realized in time that they should have surrendered their houses' leadership to their sons. Kekkonen claimed that the incumbent Social Democratic minority government of Prime Minister K.A. Fagerholm had neglected the Finnish farmers and the unemployed. Kekkonen also championed a non-partisan democracy that would be neither a social democracy nor a people's democracy. The Communists hoped that their presidential candidate, former Prime Minister Mauno Pekkala, would draw votes away from the Social Democrats, because Pekkala was a former Social Democrat. The Agrarians lost over four per cent of their share of the vote compared to the 1948 parliamentary elections. This loss ensured Paasikivi's re-election. Otherwise Kekkonen could have been narrowly elected President - provided that all the Communist and People's Democratic presidential electors would also have voted for him.
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Two-stage presidential elections were held in Finland in 1978, the first since 1968 after Urho Kekkonen's term was extended by four years by Parliament. The public elected presidential electors to an electoral college on 15 and 16 January. They in turn elected the President. The result was a victory for Urho Kekkonen, who won on the first ballot. The turnout for the popular vote was 64.3. Kekkonen had in the spring of 1975 agreed to become the Social Democratic presidential candidate, and after that all the major Finnish political parties chose him as their candidate. Kekkonen's opponents, such as the Christian League's presidential candidate Raino Westerholm, claimed that Kekkonen's long presidency weakened the Finnish democracy. Over one-third of the Finnish voters abstained from voting, partly as a protest against Kekkonen's expected landslide victory.
| Parliamentary elections | |
|---|---|
| Municipal elections | |
| County elections | |
| Presidential elections | |
| European elections | |
| Sámi elections | |
| Referendums | |
Elections in brackets were not public elections | |
