ELECTION OF FINNISH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS ON 15 JANUARY 1962.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79S00427A000500020045-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 23, 2004
• Sequence Number: 45
• Publication Date: December 18, 1961
• Content Type: IM

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
OFFICE OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
18 December 1961
25X1
OCI No. 5507/61
Copy No. ,ar)
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT: Election of Finnish Presidential Electors
On 15 January 1962.
1. Offices to be filled: 300 presidential
electors who will meet on 15 February to choose a
president.
2. Background and principal issues: This is
the regular presx en is a ec L o e. every six
years. Although Finland has a parliamentary form
of government, its constitution gives the president
special responsibilities for conducting the country's
foreign policy.
Developments in the last few weeks have re-
duced this election to a formal endorsement of Pres-
ident Kekkonen's policies for maintaining good rela-
tions with the USSR. All of Kekkonen's opponents,
including Olavi Honka who has withdrawn from the cam-
paign, agree on the overriding need to maintain such
relations but differ with him on domestic questions.
Moscow's interest in having Kekkonen re-elected was
emphasized by the Soviet note of 30 October calling
for military consultations, by the demand for assur-
ances that Finland would continue its policy of friend-
ly neutrality, and by the postponing of military talks
after Kekkonen had gone to see Khrushchev in Novosi-
birsk.
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3. Principal parties in Finland:
Right
Seats in Parliament
(Elected 1958)
Conservatives .................. 29
Right of Center
Small Farmers' party........... 1
Agrarians ...................... 47
Center
Swedish People's party......... 14
Finnish People's party......... 8
Left of Center
Social Democratic.party........ 37
Social Democratic Opposition...14
Finnish People's Democratic
League (Communist-front)...:,50
Urho Kekkonen: incumbent and candidate of
the Agrarian and Finnish People's parties.
Rafael Paasio: chairman of the Foreign Af-
fairs Committee o par iament, a moderate Social Dem-
ocrat not associated with the dominant Tanner-Leskinen
wing of the party. This latter group is constantly
castigated by the USSR as being anti-Soviet.
Emil Skog candidate of the Opposition
Social Democrats.
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Paavio Aitio: candidate of the Communist-
front Finn zs eop s Democratic League,
The Social Democrats, the Conservatives
the Finnish People's party, the Swedish People's
party, and the Small Farmers' party had formed a
five-party coalition backing the candidacy of Olavi
Honka, former attorney-general of Finland and not a
member of any party, However, on 24 November Honka
withdrew from the race in an effort to demonstrate
that the Finnish people wholeheartedly supported
President Kekkonen's policy of friendship with the
USSR. Moscow had indicated it would consider a de-
feat for Kekkonen as signifying a change in Finland's
attitude toward the USSR. The Honka coalition, which
already before his withdrawal had been subject to
strains, broke up, The Social Democrats then nom-
inated Paasio; the Finnish People's party endorsed
Kekkonen; the Conservatives decided to run uncom-
mitted electors; the Swedish People's party is allow-
ing its local branches to determine their own course
of action; and the Small Farmers,! party withdrew
from the presidential race.
Informed opinion on election outcome:
Kekkonen may not receive the 151 votes
needed for his re-election as president on the first
ballot of the electoral college, since each elector on
the initial ballot will vote for the candidate under
whose banner he ran. However, Kekkonen was the fa-
vorite even before the Soviet note, and a majority of
Finns evidently now feel that the country cannot risk
defeating the candidate obviously favored by the USSR.
The withdrawal of Honka and the breakup of the coal-?
ition behind him make Kekkonen's victory in February
certain.
A better indication of the actual polit-
ical divisions in Finland will be seen in the parlia-
mentary election of 4-5 February. This election,
which was to be held in the summer of 1962, was
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re-scheduled for February_ by President Kekkonen
in an effort to produce for the USSR the assurances
it was demanding regarding the continuity of Fin-
land's policy of friendly neutrality.
25X1
Assistant Director
Current Intelligence
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