Finnish presidential election, 1978

15.–16 January 1978



Nominee	Urho Kekkonen	Raino Westerholm
Party	Center Party	Christian League
Electoral vote	259	25

President before election

Urho Kekkonen
Center Party

Elected President

Urho Kekkonen
Center Party

Finland

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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. The 77-year-old President Kekkonen's health was already declining, although this fact was not easily noticeable in his public appearances (see, for example, Timo Vihavainen, "The Welfare Finland" (Hyvinvointi-Suomi), pgs. 883-884 in Seppo Zetterberg et al., eds., A Small Giant of the Finnish History / Suomen historian pikkujättiläinen. Helsinki: WSOY, 2003; Pentti Virrankoski, A History of Finland / Suomen historia, volumes 1&2. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society (Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura), 2009, pg. 963; Aarno Laitinen et al., eds., Tamminiemi's Inheritance Dividers (Tamminiemen pesänjakajat). Helsinki: Journalists Ltd. (Lehtimiehet Oy), 1981).

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 2 Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p630 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p606
↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p624

Elections and referendums in Finland

Parliamentary elections	1863 1867 1872 1877 1882 1885 1888 1891 1894 1900 1901 1905 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1913 1916 1917 1919 1922 1924 1927 1929 1930 1933 1936 1939 1945 1948 1951 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1972 1975 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019

Municipal elections	1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1928 1930 1933 1936 1945 1947 1950 1953 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2017

Presidential elections	1919 1925 1931 1937 1940 1943 1944 1946 1950 1956 1962 1968 1973 1978 1982 1988 1994 2000 2006 2012 2018

European elections	1996 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019

Referendums	1931 1994

Elections in brackets were not public elections

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