2012 Finnish presidential election

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Nominee 2 Pekka Haavisto 3 Timo Soini 4 Paavo Väyrynen Party Green Finns Centre   Nominee 5 Paavo Lipponen 6 Sauli Niinistö 7 Sari Essayah Party SDP National Coalition KD   Nominee 8 Eva Biaudet 9 Paavo Arhinmäki Party RKP Left Alliance

Incumbent President Tarja Halonen SDP

The next election of the President of the Republic of Finland will be held on 22 January 2012 with advance voting on 11–17 January. If necessary, the second round will be held on 5 February.^[1] The second round will be held if no candidate receives a majority of votes on the first round. The elected candidate's term will last until 2018. The incumbent Tarja Halonen is ineligible for re-election, having served the maximum two terms.

Power of the president

The President's powers were curtailed in the constitutional reform in 2000, and yet further in 2011.^[2] Currently the President leads the Finnish foreign policy together with the cabinet. EU affairs, however, fall to the Prime Minister's authority. The President has little domestic power. He or she can dissolve the parliament, but only at the Prime Minister's request. The President can choose not to ratify a bill, but this only returns it to parliament, which must then approve the bill again in order for it to become a law without the President's signature. The President's power to appoint officials has been reduced, but he or she still appoints all military officers as well as judges. The President is the Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Defence Forces. The President also has the power to pardon anyone convicted of a crime.^[3][4][5][6]

With the curtailment of the President's formal powers, many analysts have emphasized the President's position as a leader of values.^[7]

Candidates

All eight parties represented in the Finnish Parliament have nominated a candidate. The nomination was unanimous in seven parties, while the Social Democratic Party's candidate was decided in a primary, which was won by Paavo Lipponen with 67 per cent of the votes.^[8] Each candidate has been given a number from 2 to 9 — voting will happen by writing the candidate's number on the ballot paper.^[9]

Candidates
Pekka Haavisto Green League Member of Parliament, former Minister of the Environment Electoral number: 2 Nominated 11 June[10]	Timo Soini True Finns Member of Parliament, party leader Electoral number: 3 Nominated 15 October[11]	Paavo Väyrynen Centre Party Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Former Minister for Foreign Trade Electoral number: 4 Nominated 29 October[12]	Paavo Lipponen Social Democratic Party Former Prime Minister, former Speaker of the Parliament Electoral number: 5 Nominated 8 October[13]
Sauli Niinistö National Coalition Party Former Minister of Finance, former Speaker of the Parliament Electoral number: 6 Nominated 22 October[14]	Sari Essayah Christian Democrats Member of the European Parliament Electoral number: 7 Nominated 26 November[15]	Eva Biaudet Swedish People's Party Ombudsman for Minorities, former Minister of Health and Social Services Electoral number: 8 Nominated 22 October[16]	Paavo Arhinmäki Left Alliance Incumbent Minister of Culture and Sport, party leader Electoral number: 9 Nominated 20 November[17]

Campaign

Campaign funding

The parties have budgeted considerably less money for their campaigns than during the last presidential election in 2006. This is in part due to the economic crisis and in part due to scandals involving campaign funding during recent years. The four largest parties combined are estimated to spend less than 3 million euros.^[18]

Debates

MTV3 organised a debate with all eight candidates on 14 December. When discussing the European sovereign debt crisis six of the candidates believed in the survival of the euro, while Soini and Väyrynen believed that the eurozone would dissolve in one way or another.^[19] Väyrynen accused Lipponen and Niinistö of misleading the parliament, when Finland joined the common currency in the early years of the 2000s (when Lipponen and Niinistö were the leading figures of the government).^[20] Soini was the only candidate to answer that as president he would address the issue of returning Finnish Karelia to Finland in discussions with the Russian government.^[21] All candidates were opposed to Finland joining NATO, although for slightly differing reasons. Soini and Essayah underlined the importance of credible national defence, expressing concerns about defence cuts. Lipponen too was concerned about NATO membership's effects on the Defence Forces. Niinistö said that increasing security cooperation within the EU might make joining the NATO unnecessary in the long run. Biaudet stressed European defence as well, while Arhinmäki wanted to strengten the role of the UN.^[22][23] EU issues were topmost in the YLE debate on 15 December as well.^[24]

In a debate organised by Helsingin Sanomat and Nelonen on 17 January, the last day of advance voting, all candidates expressed concerns regarding the social marginalisation of the youth. All eight were also critical toward possible increases of Finland's guarantees in the European Financial Stability Facility, although Lipponen stressed the importance of European cooperation and Biaudet said that Finland should actively participate in the solving of the EU's debt problems. While seven candidates thought that the president's role in EU affairs is primarily supporting the cabinet led by the prime minister, Soini wanted to pursue more independent policies if elected. Niinistö, Haavisto, Arhinmäki and Biaudet were worried about the opinion polls' effect on tactical voting and were willing to ban the publishment of opinion polls two weeks prior to an election.^[25]

The final debate prior to the first round will be held by YLE on 19 January.^[26]

Opinion polling

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Note: the Taloustutkimus polls before November as well as the MC-Info polls and TNS Gallup poll on 17 January omitted those interviewees who could not choose a candidate.^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

• Ministry of Justice - Elections website