"Sauli Niinisto gains 62.7 percent of votes, other candidates less than 15 percent," the statement said.

The official outcome of the presidential election will be announced by the Justice Ministry on Tuesday.

The first round of the Finnish presidential election kicked off on Sunday. Since the incumbent president got the majority of votes and won his second six-year term in the first round, there will be no runoff on February 11. </s> HELSINKI (AP) - The co-ruling conservative National Coalition Party has won Finland's municipal elections for the third straight time since 2008, while its coalition partner The Finns emerged as the biggest loser and the opposition The Greens made big gains nationwide.

Finland's Finance Minister Petteri Orpo declared victory late Sunday for his NCP party, which had received 20.6 percent of the votes with 98 percent counted early Monday, nearly on par with the previous elections.

The opposition Social Democrats took second place and Prime Minister Juha Sipila's ruling Center Party third place with 19.4 and 17.8 percent support respectively.

The eurosceptic The Finns led by Foreign Minister Timo Soini settled for 8.8 percent of the votes. The Greens received 12.4 percent compared to 8.5 percent previously. </s> “The party is rising to a new level,” Ville Niinistö, the chairperson of the Green League, analysed the implications of the election results in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat.

The Green League won 24.1 per cent of the ballot in Helsinki, falling 4.3 percentage points short of the vote share of the National Coalition Party. The National Coalition owed much of its success in the capital to the popularity of its mayoral candidate, Jan Vapaavuori, who won the most votes in the entire country – a total of 29,547.

“We have to give a big hand to [Vapaavuori]. Congratulations. Absolutely amazing,” Petteri Orpo, the chairperson of the National Coalition, said to YLE.

The National Coalition also held on to its status as the largest party in municipal politics in the entire country by receiving 20.7 per cent of the votes, a share that signals a drop of 1.2 percentage points from the previous municipal elections.

SDP loses ground in large cities

The Social Democratic Party, meanwhile, failed to live up to the pre-election hype generated by opinion polls and saw its national vote share diminish by 0.2 percentage points from the previous municipal elections to 19.4 per cent.

Antti Rinne, the chairperson of the Social Democrats, had stated before the elections that the opposition party should be satisfied only if it emerges as the largest party in the elections.

The Social Democratic Party lost ground especially in large cities, with its vote share dropping in each of the seven most populous cities in Finland.

The election results were a disappointment also for the Finns Party, which saw its national vote share plummet from 12.3 per cent in 2012 to 8.8 per cent in 2017.

There is no room for excuses, admitted Timo Soini, the chairperson of the Finns Party. “We got a beating. There’s no denying that we lost these elections,” he stated in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat on Sunday.

Centre wins most seats

The Centre Party similarly fell short of its own expectations, with its national vote share dwindling from 18.7 to 17.5 per cent.

“I must admit that it’d be a slight disappointment if we fell short of the 18 per cent mark,” Juha Sipilä, the chairperson of the Centre Party, commented while the votes were still being counted on Sunday.

He later estimated that the disappointing results are attributable to the difficult decisions and reforms that have fallen on the shoulders of his Government. “It’s obvious that once you once you start taking action, it’s easy to criticise,” he explained to YLE.

The Centre Party remained the most popular party in numerous small municipalities and, as a result, secured by far the highest number of council seats in the country, a total of 2,823 – roughly 1,100 more than the Social Democrats.

The Left Alliance and the Swedish People’s Party were both able to bump up their national vote share from the previous municipal elections, the former by 0.8 percentage points to 8.8 per cent and the latter by 0.2 percentage points to 4.9 per cent.The Christian Democrats also saw its vote share increase, by 0.4 percentage points to 4.1 per cent.

Voter turnout improved by 0.5 percentage points from the previous municipal elections to 58.8 per cent, according to Helsingin Sanomat. </s> HELSINKI (AP) — Finland's president crushes competition in landslide re-election victory after receiving 62.7 percent of vote.

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Incumbent Sauli Niinistö takes an unprecedented first round victory after receiving 62.7 percent of the votes.