Incumbent Tarja Halonen has won a second six-year term in Finland's presidential run-off election by an extremely narrow margin. President Halonen, the country's first woman leader, beat off Conservative challenger Sauli Niinisto with 51.8% of votes. The left-wing president had not won an outright majority in the first round. The president is largely involved with foreign policy, and both contenders offered very similar visions. President Halonen campaigned as "the president for all the people" on a platform of equality and preserving the welfare state. Sauli Niinisto, a 57-year-old banker, styled himself as a "workers' president", campaigning in favour of economic and social reforms. Tarja Halonen, 62-year-old former lawyer and foreign minister, became the country's first woman president in 2000.

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