Centre-right seen winning Finland vote: projection

HELSINKI: Finland’s centre-right looked on track to win Sunday’s general election, a projection showed, beating out the far-right into second and Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s Social Democrats in third.

Finnish public broadcaster Yle predicted the centre-right National Coalition Party would win 48 of the 200 seats in parliament, ahead of the Finns Party with 46 seats and the Social Democrats with 43.

"If this is correct, then this is a very strong victory," National Coalition’s leader Petteri Orpo said.

"This is a forecast, so let’s take it that way, but it’s an excellent result," Finns Party leader Riikka Purra said.

With 80 % of votes counted, the Finns Party and the National Coalition were currently tied at 20.2 %, slightly ahead of the Social Democrats at 20.0 %.

The biggest party in parliament traditionally gets the first chance to build a government, and since the 1990s that party has always claimed the prime minister’s office.

"There is still election night ahead. Let’s see it until the end. I am very grateful that people have voted in droves for the Social Democrats," Prime Minister Sanna Marin said.

The voter turnout in the elections was 71.9 %, similar to the last election in 2019.