Presidential election 2012: Live results blog

22.23 100% of votes have been counted. The result of the first round of the Finnish presidential election 2012 is clear:

• Sauli Niinistö, National Coalition Party  37,0%  Goes through to the second round of voting
• Pekka Haavisto, Green party  18,8%  Goes through to the second round of voting
• Paavo Väryrynen, Centre party 17,5%
• Timo Soini, True Finns 9,4%
• Paavo Lipponen, Social Democratic Party 6,7%
• Paavo Ahrinmäki, Left Alliance 5,5%
• Eva Biaudet, Swedish People’s Party 2,7%
• Sari Essayah, Christian Democrats 2,5%

22.17 A terrible night for the Social Democrats and Lipponen. Certainly the end of the Social Democrats’ 30 year grip on the presidency.

21.55 99,4 percent of votes counted. The second round is in two weeks time between Sauli Niinistö of the National Coalition party and Pekka Haavisto of the Greens. What will the campaign look like? It certainly seems likely those that voted for Väryrynen and Timo Soini will overwhelmingly give their support to Niinistö. Ahrinmäki’s are likely to go to Haavisto, as are many of Lipponen’s and Biaudet’s. The others are perhaps harder to say, some will go to Haavisto, others to Niinistö.  Will we see a more even match in the second round than we’d ever have expected a few months ago? Who will the excluded losing candidates throw their support behind?

21.35 Around 97% of votes counted: not much has changed. It looks like it will be Niinistö against Haavisto in the second round of voting on 5 February.

21.17 Worth noting, that with 91% of votes counted, Haavisto received only 14,6% of votes cast during advanced voting, but so far 21,4% have gone to him on the actual voting day (today). Whilst Väryrynen’s support was stable (18 and 17,9% respectively). Tactical voting?

21.10 Professor Göran Djupsund says he would be “very surprised” if Haavisto was not second now. It is the urban vote that is disproportionately not counted yet and he is now on 18,5% to Väryrynen’s 17,7%.

21.02 Yle notes that Väryrynen didn’t even get 3000 votes in April 2011′s parliamentary election, when he lost his parliament seat.

20.59 Eva Biaudet of the Swedish People’s Party has done better than the party’s candidate, Henrik Lax, did in the last election in 2006. Then he won 1,6% of the vote, Biaudet is currently forecast to get 2,7% of the vote.

20.55 Yle’s forecast has been updated and now predicts Haavisto will go to the second round with 18% of the vote to Väryrynen’s 17,9%.

20.54 This screen dump from Yle shows their prognosis in full:

20.52 Yle’s prognosis, which is usually reliable, has finally been released by the national broadcaster. Yle forecasts that Paavo Väryrynen will go to the second round against Niinistö. 

20.35 Yle reports many advanced votes from the cities Helsinki, Turku and Espoo have not been reported in yet! In other words, things will change a lot most likely. Many votes for Haavisto are likely amongst those waiting to be counted.This news is also delaying Yle’s election prognosis which the public service broadcaster had hoped to broadcast at 20.35.

20.33 For an illustration of the rural-urban divide: In the southern electoral district of Uusimaa/Nyland, the results are so far: Niinistö on top 45,9%, but Haavisto clear second on 17,1 with Väryrynen only on 9,3. But in rural Lapland, Niinistö has only 23,6% of the votes, Väryrynen actually comes first with a massive 43,8 of votes, whilst Haavisto has 9,5%. NB: Neither electoral district has concluded counting.

20.25 The Ministry of Justice’s results service is also available in English here.

20.23 Professor Göran Djupsund notes on Finlands Svenska Televisions results programme that the rural areas are quickest at counting their votes, which are Väyrynen strongholds. Pekka Haavisto’s support is likely to increase when results from the largest towns begin to be counted, particularly the capital region where the Greens have the strongest level of support traditionally.

20.18 Social Democrats’ candidate Paavo Lipponen says he’s disappointed with the result. Said he wanted to be in the second round as a counterweight to Niinistö and now the second round won’t be very interesting. He can’t say at this stage why he has not done better.

20.17 Timo Soini, the party leader and True Finns presidential candidate, admits he will not make the second round. But, he will not say who he will back in the second round, saying that he needs to see who will be in it first.

20.08 Sauli Niinistö thanking his campaign workers and looking forward to a good evening at his election night party.

 

20.05 Very much between Väyrynen and Haavisto in the battle for second place, with everything to play for between the two. Pekka Haavisto is in position two in bilingual municipalities.

20.02 40,2% for Niinistö of the National Coalition party in the advanced voting, 17,6% for Centre’s Väyrynen, Green’s Haavisto 14,8%, True Finns’ Soini 9,6%, Social Democrat’s Lipponen 7,3%, Left Alliance’s Ahrinmäki 5,7%, Christian Democrats’ Sari Essayah 2,6%, Swedish People’s Party Eva Biaudet 2,5%

20.00  Polling stations have closed. Results of advanced voting are being announced now…

19.59  Will the advanced voting results show a true picture of the final result? Around as many as a quarter of voters have stated they didn’t know who they were going to vote for in opinion polls before election day. Perhaps a lot of movement has happened in opinion since the last advanced votes were cast on Tuesday and those people who have voted today.

19.55 Sauli Niinistö’s campaign are obviously very confident of their victory: they’re holding their election night party at Hotelli Presidentti, “Hotel President”, in central Helsinki.

19.50 The newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet is reporting strong voting after lunch at polling stations in the capital region. Polling stations close in ten minutes at 20.00, after which the results of advanced voting (which have been counted already) will be announced. A reminded, that in a presidential election system, a candidate needs to win more than half of the votes in order to win in the first round. This has never happened since direct voting for the president was introduced in 1994. Should no candidate receive more than half the votes, a second round of voting will be held on 5 February between the two candidates who score the highest number of votes in this first round.

19.28  Whilst it would take an absolutely massive upset for anyone other than Sauli Niinistö to win this first round (and eventually the presidency), what is also certain is that the strong showing for Paavo Väyrynen will have aided his position within his party. Some in the Centre party had not be all to enthusiastic when it had emerged that he would be their candidate, including it is rumoured party leader Mari Kiviniemi. They feared Väyrynen was all too old fashioned and a bit of a loose canon. Yet, his Eurosceptic message seems to have gone home with voters – at least enough to ensure he will likely finish a strong second or third, something nobody would have predicted a few months back. What will his position be in the future? Could he even challenge the Kiviniemi for the party leadership? It would be a surprise, but don’t rule it out. Quite the come-back for a veteran of the Kekkonen era.

19.12  The Swedish People’s Party candidate Eva Biaudet is also not likely to perform strongly in advanced polling. In many Swedish-speaking areas, it is traditional to vote on the actual voting day (today). These results will only start to be counted at 20.00 when polls close. But, look for a fairly quick result in this election. It does not take a long time to count presidential ballot papers. By 20.35, the Finnish national broadcaster is looking to have its usually reliable forecast out. All the votes will probably be counted by 22.00.

19.07  Whilst many Finns, including me, have voted today on the actual polling day at the polling station nearest our homes, over 1,3 million Finnish citizens (or 32,7% of the electorate) have already cast their votes during the advanced voting period which was between 11-17 January. These votes started to be counted today, already in advance of the close of the polls at 20.00. Their results will be announced as soon as today’s voting ends at 20.00. So, we’ll already have a good idea of how large Sauli Niinistö’s lead is – will he win the presidency already in the first round? We might not have such a good idea of who is going to come second and challenge him in any second round though. The Centre party’s Paavo Väyrynen and the Green’s Pekka Haaviso have, in opinion polls, been neck and neck with around 11-12%. But Väyrynen is likely to perform disproportionately well in advanced voting as the Centre party secures much of its support from the Finnish-speaking countryside, where people tend to disproportionately vote in advance.

19.03  Welcome to this live election results blog. Polling stations in the Finnish presidential election 2012 close in just under one hour at 20.00. All times in this blog are Finnish time. We’re two hours ahead of GMT and one hour ahead of Central European Time.

The Ministry of Justice’s results web service will be updated from 20.00 with all the latest results from around the country, as they are reported. You can access it here.

Election 2011: Live results blog

23.52 100% of votes are counted in the election for Finland’s 200-seat parliament. 

Results:

Kokoomus, the National Coalition party (moderate conservative) 20,4%, 44 seats

Social Democratic Party 19,1%, 42 seats

True Finns 19,0%, 39 seats

Centre 15,8%, 35 seats

Left Alliance 8,1%, 14 seats

Greens 7,2%, 10 seats

Swedish People’s Party 4,3%, 9 seats

Christian Democrats 4,0%, 6 seats

Other (Åland’s parliament member), 1 seat

Turnout was 70,4%.

• The big news of the night is that the True Finns have performed at the top end of expectations, winning over 19% of votes. A record-breaking 15 percent increase on their performance in the last election. Timo Soini’s populists will certainly be invited to government formation negotiations. Will they even be in government?
• The conservative National Coalition Kokoomus are the largest party in parliament for the first time in history. Party chair Jyrki Katainen is likely to be Finland’s new prime minister.
• The Social Democratic Party has come second. Will it enter government together with Kokoomus?
• The Centre Party have had a terrible election. The party of Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi have lost over seven percent of the electoral share compared to 2007.
• The Swedish People’s Party has had a good night. In an election with a high turnout, something that usually negatively effects SFP, the party has managed to retain all of its mandates. Apart from the True Finns, SFP is the only party not to have lost seats in parliament.

That is the end of this live blog, thank you for reading it. You can find full results in English from the Ministry of Justice’s results service here.

23.49 Counting in Nyland/Uusimaa electoral district is complete, the largest and last district to finalise counting. Timo Soini, chair of True Finns, beats Alexander Stubb (Kokoomus) by around 2000 votes to be the vote king in Nyland (and the entire country). SFP manages to hold onto its three mandates – the sitting SFP parliamentarians have been returned.

23.44 It looks like Astrid Thors will take SFP’s seat in Helsingfors/Helsinki. Interviewed on Yle, she says that the other government parties have acted wrongly in their lack of meeting populist immigration critics head-on. Thors has had to bear the brunt of much populist hatred due to her position as Migration Minister. She reminds us that there are 80% of the country who do not want to have the True Finns politics.

23.23 Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb tops Kokoomus’ candidates in Nyland/Uusimaa, beating his party chairman and leading candidate for Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen.

23.19 Only 100 votes between Astrid Thors and Jörn Donner in the battle for SFP’s mandate in the capital city. Too close to call.

23.03 Is this the sixth or seventh election in a row that the Centre party has gone backwards in support asks Professor Göran Djupsund in Yle’s coverage.

22.59 Can the True Finns really sit in government together with Kokoomus? True Finns made a big issue of EU support to Portugal in their campaign. They were strongly against giving Finnish tax-payers money to another country that “had not taken care of its economy”. Kokoomus’ chairman, current Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen, has advocated Finnish support for the EU crisis package to member states in economic trouble. Can either party really make the U-turn required for them to be able to govern together?

22.55  A cartoon in Vasabladet shows an SFP ladybird (the party’s logo) thanking the True Finns and the Finnishness Association for the help in the election campaign. It seems that the strong anti-Swedish feeling that the True Finns have blown up has motivated Swedish-speakers to vote for SFP.

22.52 SFP’s chairman Stefan Wallin is addressing his party’s election night party. He notes that SFP, together with True Finns, is the only party to not have lost any seats in parliament. This is a good result for SFP. Turnout is higher than normal in the country as a whole, normally bad news for SFP. Swedish-speakers tend to be more active voters, but this advantage has been rubbed out in this poll – but SFP have still manage to hold all their seats.

22.44 Voting is finished in Vasa electoral district. SFP retains 4 seats. Centre big losers in this area. Lars-Erik Gästgivars is SFP’s new member of parliament in Vasa (Håkan Nordman is retiring from parliament).

22.40 The True Finns chairman Timo Soini has arrived to massive cheering at his party’s election party. He says they’ve made political history.

22.27

Timo Soini responds to a question on whether he will be in government by answering that he will be taking a sauna with Jyrki Katainen. He hopes to sit in government. Yle points out that this election has been bad for gender equality. The True Finns are a very male-dominated party and are taking around 40 seats.

22.13 Maria Wetterstand, joint leader of Sweden’s Green party, is being interviewed on Yle. She is married to Finnish Green MP Ville Niinistö. She says that she thinks Finland has handled the True Finns very badly. According to Wetterstand, the other parties should acted cowardly. Only the Greens and SFp have spoken clearly against True Finns, the others have adopted much of their immigrant-critical populist rhetoric.

22.08 Swedish People’s Party will almost certainly win four seats in the Vasa electoral district. Ulla-Maj Wideroos of SFP says that it can be so that the True Finns and SFP are the only victors in this election. She notes that the True Finns are very long from SFP’s values and that Timo Soini’s values don’t belong in her idea of what Finland is. If True Finns enter government, will this mean SFP will leave government after decades?

22.07 81% of the votes are now counted. Kokoomus in lead with 20%, True Finns 19,4%, SDP 19%, Centre 15,9%, Left Alliance 8,2%, Greens 7,2%, SFP 4,3%, Christian Democrats 4,1%, Pirate Party 0,5%, Others 1,5%

22.03 A quick flick of the channels from Finnish television to Swedish Television (SVT) for the start of the main evening news bulletin in our western neighbour. The populist True Finns success is the main story. Nearly 20% of the votes to True Finns. This is not a good day for Finland’s international reputation. The Swedish media is finding it hard to understand how the True Finns can do so well in a country with so few immigrants.

21.58 First time turnout has been above 70% since 1995. The True Finns have at least increased interest in the democratic process.

21.48 If the True Finns are this election’s big winners, the Centre party and the Greens must be the big losers. Where have Green voters turned to? Whilst it’s feasible that many Centre voters have turned to the True Finns, it seems unlikely that liberal Green party voters would choose Timo Soini’s party. Indeed, the Greens were the only party to say they would not govern together with the True Finns. Could they voters have turned to the SDP?

21.46 Åland is the first electoral district to complete its counting in full. Not surprising as it is the smallest and interest in voting in the election is low there. The sole member from Åland Elisabeth Nauclér has been reelected.

21.33 Yle’s analyst notes that should Kokoomus, True Finns and SDP (who are all predicted to gain almost the same number of seats in parliament) form a government they’d have a strong majority without needing any smaller parties. Questionable whether smaller parties such as the Greens and SFP would want to dirty their hands with governing alongside Timo Soini’s populists.

21.28 Finnish radio and tv Yle’s prognosis has just been released.

True Finns and Kokoomus tie for first place with 19,8 percent of the vote each! SDP in third with 18,5. Prime minister’s Centre party  16,4 percent and practically certain to be in opposition. Left Alliance 7,9, Greens 7,3, SFP 4,2, Christian Democrats 4,0. A MAJOR upset. In the past, Yle’s prediction have been very accurate. Let’s hope it is not this time. It looks like True Finns will be in government if this is true. A horrendous blow for Finland’s reputation.

21.19 Prime Minister Kiviniemi has just told television that Centre is likely to go into opposition. When asked if it would be her first choice to go into opposition so that the party could lick its wounds, she seemed to agree it would be the best course of action. Could we see a Kokoomus-SDP government?

21.07 Just now, it looks like the Swedish People’s Party (SFP) may win an extra seat – if this occurred SFP would be the only party other than the True Finns to go forward in this election.

21.06 Four large parties of almost the same size. A very unusual situation in politics when one thinks of other countries.

21.05 Caution on the results to date. Many, many advanced votes in the country’s biggest electoral district, Nyland/Uusimaa, are not even counted yet. Likely to be many votes for Kokoomus amongst these. They are strong in Nyland.

21.00 47% of votes counted. There’s only 0,4 % (!) between the four largest parties!

20.55 Situation just now (percent) Kokoomus (conservatives) 19,2, SDP 19,0, True Finns 18,7, Centre 18,5, Left Alliance 8,2, Greens 6,0, Christian Democrats 4,3, Swedish People’s Party 4,2

20.29 Europe and Migration Minister Astrid Thors is currently around 300 votes ahead of fellow SFP candidate Jörn Donner in Helsingfors/Helsinki electoral district. SFP in a terrible position in Vasa electoral district, as things are now, they’d lose 2 seats in Österbotten, but they may be many votes cast today yet to be counted.

20.17 True Finns leader Timo Soini is the current “vote king”, having the highest number of individual votes. The extreme right winger Jussi Hallo-aho is in 5th place, also a True Finn.

20.12 Centre party’s chair, prime minister Mari Kiviniemi has just told YLE’s Swedish-tv channel that if this is the final result, Centre will go into opposition! A slip of the tongue in a second language?

20.10 Finland’s likely next prime minister, Kokoomus leader Jyrki Katainen speaking to TV. You can see first results on the caption.

20.03 The Finnish people have voted, polling stations are closed. Advanced voting results come in. Looks like a disaster for the Centre party with 17,3%, down 5,8%. They usually do will in advanced voting. The True Finns have 18,6% of the vote in advanced voting, third place. As expected, Kokoomus are in the lead with 20.2%, but the SDP are close behind on 19,5%. SFP are behind slightly over 1 per cent on the last election, but Swedish-speakings generally vote on the election day, and those results will come in as they are counted. ALL parties, except the True Finns, are behind on the last election.

19.52 Whilst advanced voting results will come in at 20.00, after poll’s close, we will have to wait until around 21.00 for a firm idea of how the next parliament will look. At that time, the Finnish national broadcaster Yle will release its first election prognosis. This is usually a highly reliable guide to the final result.

19.45 Just fifteen minutes until polling stations close and those first results are announced. Voting is expected to have been high today. The weather was good and people are invigorated by what was an exciting campaign. Hopefully turn out will pass 70% this time. The last two elections have seen shamefully low turnouts:  only 67,9% of the electorate voted in 2007. By way of comparison, almost 85% of Swedes voted in their latest parliamentary election in September.

19.01 The polls close in just under one hour. Counting of votes cast in advance has already started and the results of advanced voting will be released immediately after the polls close at 20.00. Some news reports earlier in the day suggested that it might not be possible to count them all in time as there are so many advanced votes to count. Over 30% of the electorate chose to vote in advance this year. Residents of rural municipalities are usually those that cast their vote in advance in greatest numbers, so expect the first results to put the Centre party in the lead. The Centre party, with its roots in the agrarian movement, has its strongholds in the more sparsely populated countryside. Swedish-speaking Finns often leave voting to the day itself, so expect a relatively poor showing for the Swedish People’s Party (SFP) amongst the first returns. The first results should show if the opinion polls are right on the True Finns – will they emerge with more than 15% of the vote?

18.50 Welcome to this live blog of Finland’s 2011 parliamentary election. I obviously can’t provide a comprehensive results service, but I’ll be providing some snippets of what’s happening as the results come in. Naturally, with a focus on Swedish-speaking Finland. All times are Finnish time, we’re three hours ahead of GMT – and one hour ahead of central Europe.

The Justice Ministry’s election results service can be found online here. It will be updated with the latest results as they come in from municipalities and electoral districts across the country.

Live EU election blog

Finnish time (GMT plus 3)

20.00 Finland’s polling stations close. Results of votes from advanced voting announced. SFP predicted to lose its European parliament seat. Kokoomus, Centre party and SDP all to win 3 seats. That’s minus 1 for Kok and Centre.

20.04 Important to note that Swedish-speaking Finns and SFP voters in particular often leave voting until the actual election day.

20.28 11 of the 20 most active turnouts in Finland in Åland municipalities. Britt Lundberg effect?

20.30 Lundberg from Åland currently in 4th place amongst top SFP candidates.

20.31 40,9% of votes counted. Ca 54 000 votes for True Finns leader Timo Soini. Currently the most personal votes.

20.33 Leading SFP candidate is in 16th place currently (of 13 Finnish EU parliament seats), it is Björn Månsson.

20.39 SFP just now looks like it could hold a seat, Björn Månsson has moved up to 13 place. 44,2% votes counted.

20.40 Finlands Svenska Televisions hockey commentator Kaj Kunnas is charged with delivering the vote results in FST’s election results programme. Beginning to think that he should perhaps stick to sport!

20.47 Outgoing SFP-European parliament member Henrik Lax being interviewed on FST. Repeats that it is vital that Finland is seen and heard in both languages in Brussels. A good example in a Europe full of language minorities, but where few have the same level of rights as in Finland. Vital that Swedish-speakers in Finland can turn to someone in Brussels without the risk of being misunderstood.

20.48 Possibility that Left Alliance fall out of the European parliament. SFP overtake them at 46% of vote counted.

20.51 Soini (True Finns), Jääteenmäki (Centre, former PM), Mitro (SDP, orthodox priest), Itälä (Kokoomus, national coaltion party, former party leader) top 4 candidates in personal votes currently. Månsson and Haglund in 27 and 28 place.

20.55 Risto Penttilä of True Finns interviewed on FST in one of this year’s most pointless interviews, as he can barely string a sentence together in Swedish. Calls SFP a racist party.

20.57 SFP currently up 1,1% on the result from the last EU election in 2004 with 6,8%. 55% of votes counted.

21.02 Carl Haglund has passed Björn Månsson. 111 votes between them. With things just now, Haglund would be SFP’s representative in the EU parliament.

21.03 Social Democrats and especially Left Alliance both significantly back. Interesting in times of economic problems. All established parties backwards with exception with SFP. True Finns taken many votes off established parties. Christian Democrats also forward.

21.06 Stefan Wallin, chairman of SFP, being interviewed on FST5. Still cautious. Will see final results. Björn Månsson also interviewed. Stresses an SFP mandate is more important than who take its.

21.08 Many votes in Korsholm, Borgå, Sibbo, Raseborg not yet counted. Could possibly favour Månsson. Stefan Wallin would be surprised if SFP stayed on 6,8%. Expects figure to shrink during the night as more Finnish-speaking areas report their results. Wallin notes that if SFP wins a mandate, it will be a very very good result with regard to fact Finland has one less MEP seat and that last time SFP was in a voting alliance (this time it is alone).

21.09 Nils Torvalds and Bo Linde also close behind Haglund and Månsson in personal votes on SFP’s list.

21.10 Yle says SFP likely to take 12th mandate, which would be an excellent result.

21.15 Interview with Christian Democrats on FST. Chairman of Swedish-speaking district of Christian Democrats admits it was very difficult to explain to Swedish-speakers the Christian Democrat’s election alliance with the True Finns. The party chairman Päivi Räisänen explains it is just a technical alliance when asked what the two parties have in common.

21.18 Nils Torvalds has overtaken Björn Månsson in the SFP’s candidates popularity.

21.19 Swedish-speaking and bilingual municipalities amongst the municipalities with the highest turnouts. Almost all over 50%. National figure only barely 40%.

21.22 73% of total votes counted in Finland – current status: Kokoomus 3 seats, Centre 3 seats, SDP 3 seats, Greens 1 seat, True Finns 1 seat, SFP Swedish People’s Party 1 seat, Left Alliance 1 seat, Christian Democrats 1 seat.

21.28 Thirteenth and last seat would currently go to Annika Lapintie of Left Alliance who is from a bilingual home. Possibility of two Swedish-speaking Finns in European Parliament.

21.36 SDP could lose one seat and be down to 2 MEPs. 80,2% of total votes counted. All three major parties losing one seat just now.

21.39 Yle says seats 12-16 are still uncertain as so many votes are uncounted in especially Helsinki. SFP’s position is still not secure.

22.00 FST: Alexander Stubb (kok), foreign minister and candidate in the last election, says it is possible that some of his previous Swedish-speaking voters turned to SFP in this election. SFP chairman Stefan Wallin, alongside him, says that one must also note that Bjarne Kallis (Christian Democrat, former party leader) is also not standing this time. Another possible source of Swedish votes.

22.05 Voting in neighbouring Sweden has ended (at 21.00 Stockholm time). Sveriges Television predicts that the Pirate Party will win 7,4% of votes in Sweden’s election to the EU parliament.

22.06 Yle reports that Left Alliance will fall out of EU parliament and that instead the Greens will take a second seat in EU parliament. Greens strong in Helsinki, where there are still significant votes to be counted.

22.08 Timo Soini received 24 votes on Åland! Åland Centre party candidate Britt Lundberg, representing all of the non-socialist Åland parties and standing on SFP’s list, received 7690 of the 9960 votes on Åland. (Hufvudstadsbladet)

22.10 So close between candidates at back of list that it is possible a second count will be required to get the actual result.

22.17 Likely that SFP will fall to 13th place and take the last Finnish seat in the EU election. Greens will overtake the 12th. SFP’s position still not secure according to Yle, if SDP or Left Alliance has many votes amongst those uncounted in Helsinki.

22.22 SFP near to receiving 100 000 votes. An increase of nearly 5000 votes on the previous election despite a lower voting turnout. 97,7% votes counted in the whole country.

22.25 SDP chair Jutta Urpilainen says she is disappointed with the election result. SDP had a goal of keeping 3 seats, and are losing ones.

22.27 Carl Haglund being interviewed on telephone on FST.  Cautious, will wait for full result before he comments result.

22.29 FST showing loud, party scenes at SFP Swedish People’s Party’s election results party. Crowd shouting ‘Calle, Calle’ Calle’. Carl ‘Calle’ Haglund has not yet arrived.

22.31 99,1% votes counted. On FST,  Stefan Wallin says it feels good. Party secretary Ulla Achrén (SFP) thanks voters.

22.33 99,5% Haglund as good as certain to take 13th of Finland’s 13 MEP seats.

22.37 99,7% of votes counted. What seems to be the final result. Elected members to the European parliament (from Yle):

1.	Ville Itälä	Saml. (Kok, National Coalition)	65 830	384 826,000	Åbo	vald – (elected)	65 439
2.	Anneli Jäätteenmäki	C (Centre)	79 931	316 337,000	Helsingfors	vald	149 646
3.	Mitro Repo	SDP (Social Democrats)	71 419	290 838,000	Helsingfors	vald	-
4.	Timo Soini	Sannf. (True Finns)	130 205	231 661,000	Esbo	vald	-
5.	Heidi Hautala	Gröna (Greens)	58 652	205 448,000	Helsingfors	vald	-
6.	Sirpa Pietikäinen	Saml.	51 372	192 413,000	Tavastehus	vald	30 042
7.	Hannu Takkula	C	39 288	158 168,500	Rovaniemi	vald	32 739
8.	Liisa Jaakonsaari	SDP	45 258	145 419,000	Uleåborg	vald	-
9.	Eija-Riitta Korhola	Saml.	51 086	128 275,333	Helsingfors	vald	35 285
10.	Sari Essayah	KD (Christian Democrats)	53 616	115 830,500	Pemar	vald	-
11.	Riikka Manner	C	37 294	105 445,667	Varkaus	vald	-
12.	Satu Hassi	Gröna	56 769	102 724,000	Tammerfors	vald	74 714
13.	Carl Haglund	SFP (Swedish People’s Party)	16 780	101 169,000	Esbo	vald	-

Overall, so far, Swedish People’s Party took 6,1% of the vote, receiving 101 203 votes. 40,3% of the electorate turned out.

22.43 That’s the end of this live blog from the results of the Finnish election to the EU parliament, in which a Swedish-speaking mandate was preserved. Carl Haglund will respresent the Swedish People’s Party SFP in Brussels during the next EU parliamentary period.

Image: YLE FST5 Election results programme. SFP candidate Björn Månsson being interviewed.