2006 Finnish presidential election

2006 Finnish presidential election

← 2000 15 January 2006 (first round) 29 January 2006 (second round) 2012 →
Turnout	70.82% (first round) 74.05% (second round)
Candidate Tarja Halonen Sauli Niinistö Party SDP National Coalition Popular vote 1,630,980 1,518,333 Percentage 51.79% 48.21%
First round results Second round results Halonen:      40–45%      45–50%      50–55%      55–60%      65–70% Niinistö:      50–55%      55–60%      60–65% Vanhanen:      35–40%      40–45%
President before election Tarja Halonen SDP Elected President Tarja Halonen SDP

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Presidential elections were held in Finland on 15 and 29 January 2006 which resulted in the re-election of Tarja Halonen as President of Finland for a second six-year term.

The first round of voting in Finnish presidential elections always takes place on the third Sunday of January, in this case 15 January 2006. As no candidate received more than half of the vote, a second round was held on 29 January between the two highest placed candidates from the first round, Tarja Halonen and Sauli Niinistö. Tarja Halonen, the incumbent, won the final round by 3.6 percentage points. The newly elected president formally took office for her second term on 1 March, and would have done so on 1 February, had no run-off been necessary (Constitution 55 §).

Advance voting is possible in Finnish elections, and the dates for this in the first round were the 4th, 5th and 7th to 10 January.^[1] Finnish citizens voting abroad could vote from the 4th to the 7th of January.^[2] An advantage to advance voting is that those doing so have a wider choice of polling stations (typically post offices, such as the one shown here), whereas on the actual election day the polling stations are fixed, usually schools, libraries or town halls.