The third Sunday in January is at the doorstep and since it is the election year in Finland that means that Finns will be deciding who their president for the next six years will be. Or so it seems because in the super-efficient country of Finland a lot of people cast their ballots in the preelection period via snail mail and this year one third of population has already done so. I’m eager to see how many people will actually vote this Sunday, but nevertheless I think that in the current widespread political apathy in many western countries, Finland’s heavy preelection voter turnout is a savior for democracy. But is it really so?

It is namely Donald Duck who is the main cause for this doubt as he gains ground among Finnish voters. I know, it’s hard to believe, but it’s not even a prank anymore as Donald the-cartoon-figure has a lot of followers who self-confidently add his name and fill the circle holding his number on the ballots. Although there is no official count of how many votes he got in the last election, but I’m pretty sure there’s a good reason for non-disclosure of this data. (To all the Finns: no matter how much you like Donald, I hope you’re aware that you’ll have to change your laws before your votes will count as currently only a native-born Finn can run for the presidency - I guess it’s obvious that Donald was not born in Oulu!)

But besides Aku Ankka (as Donald is called around here), there are other candidates running for the presidency. Eight of them (in alphabetic order, of course):

• Social Democratic Party of Finland (Suomen Sosialidemokraatinen Puolue, SDP) Tarja Halonen,
• Green League (Vihreä Liitto, VIHR) Heidi Hautala,
• Christian Democrat (Kristillisdemokraatit, KD) Bjarne Kallis,
• independent candidate Arto Lahti,
• Swedish People’s Party (Svenska Folkpartiet, SFP) Henrik Lax,
• National Coalition (Kansallinen Kokoomus, KOK) Sauli Niinistö,
• True Finns (Perussuomalaiset, PS) Timo Soini and
• Finnish Centre (Suomen Keskusta, KESK) Matti Vanhanen.

Although the bunch is quite colorful, just like everywhere where there are more than two or three presidential candidates the rest don’t stand a chance. According to various public polls Hautala, Kallis, Lahti, Lax and Soini are supported by less than few percents. Isn’t it a bit sad when less than 1% supports a candidate and they still decide to run for the office. Thus the only serious candidates remain Halonen, Niinistö and Vanhanen - while the latter two reach only a tad bit above current president’s Halonen knees who has more than 30% support lead over both of them. And since the winner of these elections is quite obvious, the only question that really remains is whether there will be a second round or will Tarja sweep the floor in the first round. Older Finns believe that Tarja will win in the first round, while younger population (18-35) is convinced that there will be a second round. I’ve not made my decision yet, but I will make some popcorn Sunday evening and follow the events closely. (If you want to follow the events too, check out the YLE Vaalit 2006 pages on Sunday, or later for results.)

But presidency in Finland has not always been a form of entertainment as it appears to be for many Finns today. Believe it or not, but there were unstable times for Finnish democracy when particularly one of the democratically elected presidents held the post for the whole 25 years refusing to resign (he was in the office from 1956 to 1981). Such political orientation is usually called dictatorship elsewhere, but Finns have somehow managed to keep calling it democracy during the 25 year presidency of Urho Kekkonen. The frosting on the cake being that Finns even loved him. And not just his political activity but his physical appearance as well as he was often regarded as the sexiest Finn. Yugoslavia and Josip Broz Tito, anyone? The ultimate dictator playboys.

Good question is why did Finns tolerate Kekkonen’s practically self-extended presidency? During his 25-year tenure there were a lot of tensions between Finland and Russia. I’m sure that there were some serious and tough times too, but Kekkonen also had a few tricks in his bag that helped him get electorate support. While he was surfing in Hawaii in 1961 a sudden crisis emerged between Finland and Russia which Kekkonen single-handedly resolved by personally visiting the president of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev. In minds of Finnish people Kekkonen possessed extraordinary skills of handling the issue and they rewarded him with another term in the office. Although it is a fact today that the crisis of 1961 was a prearranged deal between Kekkonen and Khrushchev and that the sole purpose of this crisis was to reassure Kekkonen reelection. I guess today we would call such dirty tactics the politics of fear which have striking resemblance to how the Bush family is manipulating their citizens.

But all that was during the time (from 1919 to 1988) when the president was elected by an electoral college which was made up of electors who were chosen by the voters in the presidential election (although many regimes have shown that it is quite easy to manipulate even direct elections). However the murky presidential election business changed to muddy in the 1988 when the indirect and direct elections were conducted in parallel. Thus the first direct elections were conducted in 1994 and since then the Finnish president is elected by the direct popular vote exclusively.

I was quite surprised to see how the presidential candidates tried to get voters on their side. Big part of every candidate’s campaign is played out in the candidates’ cafes. Each candidate set up a cafe in various cities and towns around Finland where they serve politically charged coffee. Although the coffee is free, I cannot imagine that you can sip it in peace and without the campaigners trying to brainwash you with political orientation du jour. Which bears a striking resemblance to churches in the US serving free doughnuts before and after their masses, of course to attract as many people as possible. And as this was labeled the doughnut religion, should the Finnish label their presidential candidates’ luring the coffee presidency?

Another Finnish election specialty are the vaalikoneet (or the election machines). Vaalikone is a web form with a series of questions on various current political topics. After answering the questions and submitting the form the election machine scores your responses and spits the name of the candidate that is closest to how you think the country should be run. A brilliant idea for the hesitating. Have a peek at a few vaalikoneita yourself: YLE (the Finnish national broadcasting corporation), MTV3 (largest Finnish commercial TV station) and Helsingin Sanomat (the most widely read daily paper in Finland).

Dear readers, pick your favorite candidate, vote and cross your fingers.

Mladen

BTW: If you have time, please do check the web pages of the candidates and their parties. Not all have an English version, however those that don’t speak volumes by the sheer layout. Brrrr. I had fun and I’m sure that the curious among you will too.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 14th, 2006 at 11:18 pm and is filed under Culture, Finland, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.