1968 Finnish presidential election
15–16 January 1968
 
Candidate Urho Kekkonen Matti Virkkunen Veikko Vennamo
Party Centre National Coalition Rural Party
Electoral vote 201 66 33
Popular vote 1,221,078 482,693 231,959
President before election

Urho Kekkonen
Centre

 Elected President

Urho Kekkonen
Centre

Two-stage presidential elections were held in Finland in 1968. On 15 and 16 January the public elected presidential electors to an electoral college.[1] They in turn elected the President. The result was a victory for Urho Kekkonen, who won on the first ballot.[2] The turnout for the popular vote was 70.2.[3]

Kekkonen's two opponents, the centre-right National Coalition Party's candidate Director of the National Commercial Bank Matti Virkkunen and the populist Finnish Rural Party's leader Veikko Vennamo, criticized him for governing Finland in a too autocratic way.

Vennamo in particular accused Kekkonen of pursuing a too dependent and servile foreign policy towards the Soviet Union. Since almost thirty per cent of the eligible Finnish voters abstained from voting, there was some underlying discontent with the presidential candidates, or Kekkonen's wide lead over his two opponents. Notably, the National Coalitioners and Ruralists - both opposition parties at the time - gained clearly higher percentages of the popular vote than in the 1966 Finnish parliamentary elections. This foreshadowed their major gains in the 1970 Finnish parliamentary elections. Although during this presidential campaign, Kekkonen promised not to run for president again,[4][5][6][7] however, he extended his presidential term in 1973 and ran nearly unopposed in 1978.

Results

Party or allianceVotes%Seats
Electoral Union of Urho KekkonenCentre Party421,19720.6665
Finnish People's Democratic League345,60916.9556
Social Democratic Party315,06815.4655
Social Democratic Union of Workers and Smallholders46,8332.306
Swedish People's Party2,5680.130
Independents21,4251.051
Total1,152,70056.54183
Electoral Union of Matti VirkkunenNational Coalition Party432,01421.1958
Independents6,7870.332
Total438,80121.5260
Electoral Union of Veikko Vennamo231,28211.3533
Electoral Union of SFPSupporters of Urho Kekkonen68,3783.359
Supporters of Matti Virkkunen43,8922.156
Supporters of Veikko Vennamo6770.030
Total112,9475.5415
Electoral Union of LKP102,8315.049
Others310.000
Total2,038,592100.00300
Valid votes2,038,59299.49
Invalid/blank votes10,4100.51
Total votes2,049,002100.00
Registered voters/turnout2,920,63570.16
Source: Nohln & Stöver

Electoral college

CandidatePartyVotes%
Urho KekkonenCentre Party20167.00
Matti VirkkunenNational Coalition Party6622.00
Veikko VennamoFinnish Rural Party3311.00
Total300100.00
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

References

  1. ↑ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p. 606 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p. 630
  3. ↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p. 624
  4. ↑ Timo Vihavainen, "The Welfare Finland" (Hyvinvointi-Suomi), pp. 859–861 in Seppo Zetterberg et al., eds., A Small Giant of the Finnish History / Suomen historian pikkujättiläinen. Helsinki: WSOY, 2003
  5. ↑ Pentti Virrankoski, A History of Finland / Suomen historia, volumes 1&2. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society (Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura), 2009, p. 961
  6. ↑ Martti Häikiö, The Election of President / Presidentin valinta, p. 96. Porvoo: WSOY, 1993
  7. ↑ What-Where-When: A Citizen's Yearbook (Mitä-Missä-Milloin - Kansalaisen vuosikirja) 1969, p. 140. Helsinki: Otava Ltd., 1968
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