Election time in Finland
On the 28 of January, Finland will be holding it's presidential election. Unfortunately, there is no such sense of heightened emotion compared to to the 2016 election in the US, as the result is pretty clear already. But before going into that, let's take a look at some basics.
Presidents are elected to six year terms, with a maximum of two consecutive terms. The winner is determined with popular vote, meaning the candidate with most votes is the winner(unlike in the US). In order to run, you need to be a native Finnish citizen, be nominated by a political party with representation in parliament, or have 20 000 signatures if you want to run as an independent. The elections have two rounds. During the first round all candidates are against each other and if none of them get over 50% of the vote, the two candidates with the most votes will run against one another in the second round two weeks later.
What does the Finnish president do? Well, he mostly acts as a figurehead. While the Finnish president is the head of state and holds some powers, he's mostly a symbolical figure. For example, all bills passed by the parliament have to be signed into law by the president, meaning technically, he can't veto any new legislation. However, this rarely happens and even in that case the parliament can get around this by voting on the bill again, meaning it's mostly a ceremonial task. The president also officially appoints the prime minister and he can technically choose anyone he likes, but in practice, the prime minister has almost always been the leader of the largest party in parliament. Officially the president also leads Finland's foreign policy, but again, in practice this is a symbolical task as all treaty's have to be approved by the parliament. Because of this, the president is mostly seen as symbol of the country. He symbolizes the people of Finland and acts as an embodiment for the whole nation while visiting other countries. Inside of Finland, the president mostly leads by example. While he doesn't really have that much power, his statements are closely followed, meaning his real power comes from his contribution to public discourse. Because of this, the president is still a major figure in Finnish politics.
Now, as I said earlier, there really is no sense of heightened emotion as the result is pretty clear already. Why is that? Well, quite simply because the incumbent Sauli Niinistö will win. Despite the fact that his support dropped in the most recent polls, he's still polling at 72%, according to Yle, the national broadcasting service. Basically, it seems that for the first time with the modern electoral system, the president will be elected during the first round of voting. Really the only way for Niinistö to lose is if something terrible happens.
This was simply a brief look on the upcoming election. I'm planning on going a bit deeper on the candidates and some of the issues currently being discussed in future posts, but as you can see from my lack of activity, that might take another week. Meanwhile, you can follow me on Twitter. I'm a lot more active there.
Presidents are elected to six year terms, with a maximum of two consecutive terms. The winner is determined with popular vote, meaning the candidate with most votes is the winner(unlike in the US). In order to run, you need to be a native Finnish citizen, be nominated by a political party with representation in parliament, or have 20 000 signatures if you want to run as an independent. The elections have two rounds. During the first round all candidates are against each other and if none of them get over 50% of the vote, the two candidates with the most votes will run against one another in the second round two weeks later.
What does the Finnish president do? Well, he mostly acts as a figurehead. While the Finnish president is the head of state and holds some powers, he's mostly a symbolical figure. For example, all bills passed by the parliament have to be signed into law by the president, meaning technically, he can't veto any new legislation. However, this rarely happens and even in that case the parliament can get around this by voting on the bill again, meaning it's mostly a ceremonial task. The president also officially appoints the prime minister and he can technically choose anyone he likes, but in practice, the prime minister has almost always been the leader of the largest party in parliament. Officially the president also leads Finland's foreign policy, but again, in practice this is a symbolical task as all treaty's have to be approved by the parliament. Because of this, the president is mostly seen as symbol of the country. He symbolizes the people of Finland and acts as an embodiment for the whole nation while visiting other countries. Inside of Finland, the president mostly leads by example. While he doesn't really have that much power, his statements are closely followed, meaning his real power comes from his contribution to public discourse. Because of this, the president is still a major figure in Finnish politics.
Now, as I said earlier, there really is no sense of heightened emotion as the result is pretty clear already. Why is that? Well, quite simply because the incumbent Sauli Niinistö will win. Despite the fact that his support dropped in the most recent polls, he's still polling at 72%, according to Yle, the national broadcasting service. Basically, it seems that for the first time with the modern electoral system, the president will be elected during the first round of voting. Really the only way for Niinistö to lose is if something terrible happens.
This was simply a brief look on the upcoming election. I'm planning on going a bit deeper on the candidates and some of the issues currently being discussed in future posts, but as you can see from my lack of activity, that might take another week. Meanwhile, you can follow me on Twitter. I'm a lot more active there.
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