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Finland The Presidential Election of 1988
The presidential election held on January 31 and
February 1,
1988, was the first to use the new procedures for choosing
the
nation's highest official
(see Electoral System
, this
ch.). The
contest's outcome, the re-election of Mauno Koivisto,
surprised
no one, yet he captured a smaller portion of the direct
vote than
expected--only 47.9 percent, rather than the 60 to 70
percent
forecast by opinion polls during 1987. His failure to win
more
than half of the direct, or popular, vote of the 84
percent
turnout meant that Koivisto could claim victory only after
he had
the support of a majority of the 301-member electoral
college.
This he achieved on the body's second ballot, when the
votes of
45 of the 63 electors pledged to the KOK candidate, Prime
Minister Harri Holkeri, were added to those of the 144
electors
he had won on his own. Koivisto's inability to win the
presidency
directly was caused by an upsurge of support in the final
weeks
of the campaign for his stronger rivals, Kesk's Paavo
Vayrynen
and the KOK's Holkeri--who got 20.1 and 18.1 percent of
the vote
respectively, and Kalevi Kivistö, the candidate of voters
linked
to the SKDL and the Greens, who got 10.4 percent. The
strong
finish of Vayrynen and Kivistö was regarded by some as a
vote
against the KOK-SDP coalition formed after the March 1987
parliamentary election. The 1.4 percent garnered by the
DEVA
candidate, Jouko Kajanoja, indicated the marginal role
that the
Stalinist wing of the communist movement played in the
country's
political life.
The presidential campaign did not center, to any
significant
degree, on issues, but on the candidates themselves;
Vayrynen and
Holkeri both clearly wanted to position themselves well
for the
presidential election of 1994. Neither had any hope of
defeating
the ever-popular Koivisto in 1988, and it was widely
assumed that
he would not again seek reelection. Vayrynen was seen as
the
winner of this race for position, in that he had come from
far
behind in the polls, had easily beaten Koivisto in the
northern
provinces, had found good support elsewhere--except in the
Helsinki area, and had cemented his leadership role in his
own
party. His strong party base and his ability to attract
conservatives dissatified with their party's alliance with
the
socialists, combined with his extensive ministerial
experience,
made the relatively young Vayrynen Finland's foremost
opposition
politician. His strong finish, and the lack of any SDP
politician
of Koivisto's personal stature and popularity, guaranteed
Kesk
continued significance in the country's political life
even when
in opposition, and were perhaps signs that the dominance
of postindustrial southern Finland over the country as a whole
might
only be temporary.
Data as of December 1988
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