Centre Party Takes Early Lead in Finnish Vote

The Centre Party of Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen led an early vote count in Finland's close-run parliamentary election

The Centre Party, which has been buoyed by the strong performance of Finland's economy, won 24.8 percent of 1.2 million votes cast before polling day, official results showed.

The Social Democratic Party (SDP), partners of the Centre Party in the current cabinet, had 22.9 percent; the conservative National Coalition was third on 21.8 percent.

The ballots accounted for nearly 30 percent of Finland's 4.3 million-strong electorate, and were cast within the Nordic country and at missions abroad in a week of advance voting.

Vanhanen acknowledged the count so far did not give his party a big enough margin to claim victory.

"We usually have a clearly bigger proportion of the advance vote," Vanhanen told YLE public television. "This will be an exciting evening."

The Centre Party gets much of its support in rural areas and sparsely populated northern Finland.

The consensual nature of the Finnish political system has meant politicians have avoided confrontation with potential allies while on the hunt for votes. They focused mainly on care for the elderly, health and issues like climate change.

Four years ago the Centre Party narrowly edged out the SDP, winning the premiership and ending eight years of coalition between the Social Democrats and conservatives.

Social Democrat leader Eero Heinaluoma said he thought his party would improve its position as the count advanced.

"Our final stretch has gone well," he told reporters. "Usually the Centre has lost ground as counting has continued. This will be extremely interesting."

Conservative leader Jyrki Katainen played down the early indications, saying: "We don't know yet if we will end up third. That cannot be known yet, these are advance votes."