1968 Finnish presidential election

← 1962

15–16 January 1968

1978 →

Turnout

70.16%


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

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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%.^[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.

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Transcription

Results

Inauguration ceremony for the Urho Kekkonen precidency in 1968. Here the President meets the representants of diplomats. Behind him, the Prime minister Ahti Karjalainen

Popular vote


Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats
	Electoral Union of Urho Kekkonen		Centre Party	421,197	20.66	65
			Finnish People's Democratic League	345,609	16.95	56
			Social Democratic Party	315,068	15.46	55
			Social Democratic Union of Workers and Smallholders	46,833	2.30	6
			Swedish People's Party	2,568	0.13	0
			Independents	21,425	1.05	1
		Total		1,152,700	56.54	183
	Electoral Union of Matti Virkkunen		National Coalition Party	432,014	21.19	58
			Independents	6,787	0.33	2
		Total		438,801	21.52	60
	Electoral Union of Veikko Vennamo			231,282	11.35	33
	Electoral Union of SFP		Supporters of Urho Kekkonen	68,378	3.35	9
			Supporters of Matti Virkkunen	43,892	2.15	6
			Supporters of Veikko Vennamo	677	0.03	0
		Total		112,947	5.54	15
	Electoral Union of LKP			102,831	5.04	9
	Others			31	0.00	0
Total				2,038,592	100.00	300

Valid votes				2,038,592	99.49
Invalid/blank votes				10,410	0.51
Total votes				2,049,002	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				2,920,635	70.16
Source: Nohln & Stöver

Electoral college


Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Urho Kekkonen	Centre Party	201	67.00
	Matti Virkkunen	National Coalition Party	66	22.00
	Veikko Vennamo	Finnish Rural Party	33	11.00
Total			300	100.00

Source: Nohlen & Stöver

References

^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p. 606 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
^ Nohlen & Stöver, p. 630
^ Nohlen & Stöver, p. 624
^ 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
^ Pentti Virrankoski, A History of Finland / Suomen historia, volumes 1&2. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society (Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura), 2009, p. 961
^ Martti Häikiö, The Election of President / Presidentin valinta, p. 96. Porvoo: WSOY, 1993
^ What-Where-When: A Citizen's Yearbook (Mitä-Missä-Milloin - Kansalaisen vuosikirja) 1969, p. 140. Helsinki: Otava Ltd., 1968

v t e Elections and referendums in Finland
Parliamentary elections	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 2023 2027
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 2021
County elections	2022
Presidential elections	(1919) 1925 1931 1937 (1940) (1943) (1946) 1950 1956 1962 1968 1978 1982 1988 1994 2000 2006 2012 2018 2024
European elections	1996 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019 2024
Sámi elections	1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023
Referendums	1931 1994
Elections in brackets were not public elections

This page was last edited on 22 March 2024, at 12:56