Finland: Left-leaning President Tarja Halonen won the first round of Finland's presidential election yesterday, but was set to face a run-off against a conservative challenger, according to preliminary results.
Voters rewarded Finland's first woman president for her common touch and promises to preserve the welfare state, but she is likely to fall short of a simple majority and have to face former finance minister Sauli Niinisto again, election organisers said.
Ms Halonen won 46.3 per cent of the popular vote, with Mr Niinisto second on 24 per cent and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, whose Centre Party leads the governing coalition, third with 18.6 per cent.
Ms Halonen (62) had held on to a strong lead throughout her campaign for a final six-year term.
"If there is a second round and if the figures stay as they are, this is pole position," she said after the projection was announced.
She is backed by the Social Democrats, who are in the ruling coalition, as well as an opposition left-wing alliance and Finland's biggest union federation, but is popular across party lines.
The election comes exactly a century after women in Finland won the right to vote and to stand for political office.
The president decides foreign policy in co-operation with the government and is defence forces commander-in-chief.
Relations with the European Union are largely handled by the prime minister's office.
Many who voted in 2000 for Ms Halonen, a former foreign minister and a single mother at the time, said they wanted a woman president, but gender was seen as less of a factor this time.
Though unemployment runs above 8 per cent, the economy has transformed since a deep depression followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and Finland is now seen as highly competitive, according to the World Economic Forum. - (Reuters)