1978 Finnish presidential election

Two-stage presidential elections were held in Finland in 1978, the first since 1968 after Urho Kekkonen's term was extended by four years by Parliament.[1] The public elected presidential electors to an electoral college on 15 and 16 January.[2] They in turn elected the President. The result was a victory for Urho Kekkonen, who won on the first ballot.[1] The turnout for the popular vote was 64.3.[3] Kekkonen had in the spring of 1975 agreed to become the Social Democratic presidential candidate, and after that all the major Finnish political parties chose him as their candidate. Kekkonen's opponents, such as the Christian League's presidential candidate Raino Westerholm, claimed that Kekkonen's long presidency weakened the Finnish democracy. Over one-third of the Finnish voters abstained from voting, partly as a protest against Kekkonen's expected landslide victory.

1978 Finnish presidential election

15–16 January 1978

Nominee Urho Kekkonen Raino Westerholm Party Centre Christian League Electoral vote 259 25 Popular vote 2,017,631 215,244 Electors pledged 260 24 Faithless electors 1 1   CPP Nominee Veikko Vennamo Ahti M. Salonen Party Rural Party Constitutional People's Party Electoral vote 10 6 Popular vote 114,488 82,478 Electors pledged 10 6 Faithless electors

President before election Urho Kekkonen Centre Elected President Urho Kekkonen Centre

The 77-year-old President Kekkonen's health was already declining, although this fact was not easily noticeable in his public appearances.[4][5][6]

Results

Popular vote

Alliance or party		Votes	%	Seats
Supporters of Urho Kekkonen	Social Democratic Party	569,154	23.2	74
	Centre Party	475,372	19.4	64
	Finnish People's Democratic League	445,098	18.2	56
	National Coalition Party	360,310	14.7	45
	Swedish People's Party	88,054	3.6	12
	Liberals	71,232	2.9	8
	Coalition for Åland	5,331	0.2	1
	Socialist Workers Party	2,187	0.1	0
	Private Entrepreneurs' Party	893	0.0	0
Finnish Christian League		215,244	8.8	24
Finnish Rural Party		114,488	4.7	10
Constitutional People's Party		82,478	3.4	6
Finnish People's Unity Party		18,543	0.8	0
Invalid/blank votes		21,955	–	–
Total		2,470,339	100	300
Source: Nohln & Stöver

Electoral college

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Urho Kekkonen	Centre Party	259	86.3
Raino Westerholm	Finnish Christian League	25	8.3
Veikko Vennamo	Finnish Rural Party	10	3.3
Ahti M. Salonen	Constitutional People's Party	6	2.0
Total		300	100
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

References

1. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p630 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
2. Nohlen & Stöver, p606
3. Nohlen & Stöver, p624
4. Timo Vihavainen (2003) "The Welfare Finland" (Hyvinvointi-Suomi), pp883–884 in Seppo Zetterberg et al., eds., A Small Giant of the Finnish History, WSOY
5. Pentti Virrankoski (2009) A History of Finland, Finnish Literature Society, p963
6. Aarno Laitinen et al., eds. (1981) Tamminiemi's Inheritance Dividers, Journalists Ltd