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Election Profile:

Flag of Finland
  • Country: Finland
  • Official Name: Republic of Finland
  • Election Type: Presidential
  • First Round: January 22, 2012
    Second Round: February 5, 2012
Source for election date

At stake in this election:

  • The office of President of Finland

Description of government structure:

  • Chief of State: President Tarja HALONEN
  • Head of Government: Prime Minister Jyrki Tapani KATAINEN
  • Assembly: Finland has a unicameral Parliament (Eduskunta) with 200 seats.

Description of electoral system:

  • The President is elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 6-year term.
  • The Prime Minister is appointed by the president with the approval of the parliament to serve a 4-year term.
  • In the Parliament (Eduskunta), 199 members are elected by open list proportional representation in multi-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms and 1 members are elected by plurality vote in single-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms.***

*** There are 14 multi-member constituencies with anywhere from 6 to 33 seats. Seats are distributed among the individual parties, or alliances of several parties, in accordance with the d'Hondt method.

Main Candidates in the Second Round of the Presidential race:

Main Candidates in the First Round of the Presidential race:

Population and number of registered voters:

  • Population: 5,259,250 (July 2011 est.)
  • Registered Voters: 4,159,857 ( 2012 )

Last Updated on 05/09/2012

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