The second round of the Finnish presidential elections was held today and president Tarja Halonen won.
President Halonen is the Social Democrat candidate who had also the votes of the Left Wing Alliance and the Greens behind her. She got 51.8% of the vote. Conservative candidate Sauli Niinistö got 48.2%. 77.2% of the voters voted.
President Halonen was elected six years ago for her first term. She was the first female president in Finland and was quite controversial before her first election. She was and is clearly from the left wing of the Social Democrat party, was a single unmarried mother, and also had acted as the chairman of the Finnish gay rights association. The fact that she did not go to church or belong to any congregation was also discussed.
President Halonen has been very popular during her first term but the conservative candidate Niinistö had a good campaign which managed to polarize the election quite well. Gladly, it did not manage to give him the Mäntyniemi (Finnish presidential residence).