Stubb, Haavisto to face off in Finnish presidential poll

HELSINKI — The presidential candidate for the National Coalition and former prime minister Alexander Stubb will face the independent Green candidate, former foreign minister Pekka Haavisto, in the second round of Finland's presidential election on Feb 11.

According to the preliminary calculation of all the votes published by the Ministry of Justice on Sunday night, Stubb received 27.2 percent support, followed by Haavisto with 25.8 percent. Jussi Halla-aho, candidate of the Finns Party and speaker of the Parliament of Finland, garnered 19 percent support.

Since no candidate received more than half of the votes on Sunday, a second round of voting will be held between the two candidates who received the most votes in the first round, namely Stubb and Haavisto.