Political parties "lose grip" on presidential polls

As the arctic dark morning dawned in Finland on Monday, parts of the political scene awakened to the reality they had suffered record low support the night before.

The landslide victory of the incumbent president Sauli Niinistö, who ran as an independent candidate, reflects the fact that both the leading ruling party, the Center Party and the leading opposition, the Social Democratic Party suffered major losses. The center candidate got 4.1 percent of the votes and the social democratic candidate 3.1 percent.

Observers noted the political parties had major problems in trying to convert party loyalty to political support for a presidential candidate.

"Political parties have lost their grip on the presidential elections, and that trend may increase in the future," said Hanna Wass, a researcher from the University of Helsinki.

"It is clear that the mobility of voters has increased and people usually voting for the left can vote for a non-socialist president," she told Finnish news agency STT.

Also talking to STT, Mikko Majander, director of the left leaning think tank Kalevi Sorsa Foundation, divided Finland into three cohorts -- "red-green globalists", "populists with a national conservative character" and then "the moderate center-right people". Majander said each of those groups could sustain only one major candidate.

Majander said the Green candidate Pekka Haavisto took the top position in the red-green globalist group early on, and the losers were the two candidates from the left, Tuula Haatainen of the Social Democratic Party and Merja Kyllönen of the Left League. The total support of the two ladies from the left was less than the 6.9 percent populist candidate Laura Huhtasaari got.

Teemu Luukka, a political analyst of newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, compared the results of the social democrats to their historic importance in Finland. Luukka noted that Finland in its present societal and legislative form has been largely built on the basis of the political programs of the social democrats.

Jenni Karimaki, researcher from Turku University, warned of "too wide conclusions" made based the election results, especially the upcoming parliamentary elections next year. He explained that the presidential election is tied to the person, but the parliamentary elections are campaigned on political issues.

The success of Niinistö's campaign tactics was not the only reason for the disasters of the parties, especially the ruling Center Party.

It suffered from savage competition from its long time chairman and former foreign minister Paavo Väyrynen, who chose to run as an independent. The center's own candidate, former prime minister Matti Vanhanen got only 4.1 percent while Vayrynen 6.2 percent.

Centrist leader, Prime Minister Juha Sipilä had appealed to center supporters to vote for Vanhanen. He had said before the election that he would tie his own political future with the success of the party's candidate.

Sipilä backtracked on his words on election night. Sipilä said he would carry out an overall estimate of the situation and said the party base had sent too negative feedback about his pledge. Sipilä said the election results have no bearing on the level of support envisaged for the parliamentary elections 2019.

Väyrynen said on election night that the leadership of Center Party should now realize the current political line of the party is wrong.

Observers have noted the support of Sipilä in the party base has diminished since the current coalition government started, but time is too short to make a change on the top management before the 2019 election.