Niinistö gets 156,000 signatures for candidacy

President Sauli Niinistö has already received 156,000 signatures from people who support his independent candidacy in the January 2018 presidential polls, although only 20,000 signatures are needed for doing that.

A voter association supporting the re-election bid for the incumbent President Niinistö on Monday said it already gained that huge number of signatures in a very short time which was beyond all expectations, reported the national broadcaster Yle quoting a statement of the association.

Heikki A Ollila of the association in the statement termed the huge number of signatures as stunning and thanked the people who joined the signature-collecting campaigning.

Niinistö, who contested in the 2012 presidential election as a candidate of the Kansallinen Kokoomus (National Coalition Party-NCP), a component of the three-party ruling alliance, announced in May that he would contest in the January 2018 presidential election as an independent candidate.

After the announcement, Kokoomus Chairman and Finance Minister Petteri Orpo expressed his support for Niinistö.

Matti Vanhanen is the presidential candidate of the Suomen Keskusta (Centre Party), Tuula Haatainen is of the opposition Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue (Social Democratic Party of Finland-SDP), Pekka Haavisto of the Vihreä Liitö (Green League), Merja Kyllönen of the Vasemmistoliitto (Left Alliance), Nils Torvalds of the Suomenruotsalainenkansanpuolue (Swedish People’s Party of Finland-RKP), and Laura Huhtasaari is the candidate of the Perussuomalaiset (Finns Party). The Suomen Kristillisdemokraatit (Christian Democrats of Finland) Party is backing Niinistö.