Alajärvi
“I don't you know, it's difficult”, says Kristofer Rantala.
18-year-old Rantala was allowed to vote for the first time in the presidential election. According to relatives, the center Olli Rehn would have been the best candidate, but Rantala voted for the basic Finns Jussi Halla-ahoa.
“Because the guys too,” says Rantala.
Now Rantala is wondering if he will vote in the second round at all. Probably not. According to Rantala, many other people his age plan to vote for the coalition Alexander Stubbiabecause “no president can't be gay”, but Rantala would probably vote for the candidate of the voters association, supported by the greens Pekka Haavisto.
“Haavisto would be more convincing,” he says.
Miko Mäkelä, 18, and Miko Björkbacka, 18, met friends in the ABC parking lot. In the other car, Ville Takala, 18. Everyone voted for the first time in the elections. In the first round, their candidate was Jussi Halla-aho. Stubb will probably get the votes in the second round.
Rantala lives in Alajärvi in Southern Ostrobothnia. If the people of Alajärvi could have decided, there would be two completely different candidates in the second round of the presidential election.
Halla-aho won by far the largest number of votes in Alajärvi with 37.6 percent support. Rehn came second in the first round with 28.2 percent of the vote, even though the center party is still the largest party in Alajärvi in municipal politics. Halla-aho was born and went to school in Tampere, but his roots on his mother's side of the family are in Alajärvi – and that is important here.
Since neither Halla-aho nor Rehn made it to the second round of the presidential election, the people of Alajärvi now have to make a new choice.
The situation is perhaps a little more favorable for Stubb, who received 18 percent of the votes of the people of Alajärvi in the first round. 8.6 percent of Alajärvi residents voted for Haavisto.
To be central enrolling Mervi Ukonmäki has made up his mind: he will move to Stubb's camp. Even though the decision has been made, he will cast his vote in the urn only in the last hours of the election day. It's a tradition.
“I think Rehn would have had a lot of the same stability as Sauli in Niinistöso he would have been an excellent president, but of the two, Stubb is closer to my own values,” says Ukonmäki.
Garden teacher Mervi Ukonmäki hopes that the turnout will not decrease from the first round. “If you don't vote, you are not allowed to complain,” says Ukonmäki.
However, many others are still thinking about their position. Some may not vote at all. According to Ukonmäki, that would be a bad thing.
“Yes, we start from the fact that you have to vote. Then you can't complain if you don't vote,” says Ukonmäki.
“Many may think that our voices don't have that much impact when there are so few of us here, but that's not true.”
Hesitation can be seen as silence on the last day of early voting at Alajärvi town hall.
Liisa Heinilä, 84, has come to vote in advance because he doesn't have to think about it. His candidate made it through the first round. He does not agree to reveal more about his choice.
“I hope that many people will not fail to vote. That would be the most miserable,” says Heinilä.
Liisa Heinilä (left), Paula Ahopelto (right) and her husband Sauli Ahopelto went to vote at the town hall polling station on the last day of early voting. The building designed by Alvar Aalto is the pride of Alajärvi.
Alajärvi Sitting at the table of the “parliament” that meets in Teboil Mauri Myllykankaan, 67, thinks that even not voting is a choice. Therefore, he will not vote in the second round.
“I already voted once and lost. It's a clear game,” says Myllykangas.
A group of men gathering for morning coffee has been pushing the world and politics through and into the stack for 50 years. Before, we went straight to work from coffee, now nobody is in a hurry anymore, because most of the men have been retired for years.
Until last fall, Shell served as the meeting place, but after it ceased operations, the men moved here.
Or not all. Some – weather vanes – meet at nearby ABC, gusts Esko Keltkangas75. He is not a co-op chain man at all.
“There's probably no need to guess how I'm going to vote, for the right-wing candidate, of course,” Keltikangas says.
Unlike those “wind pennants”, who change their minds about how it hurts and where it hurts, Keltikangas blows, and the group of men roars with laughter.
Esko Keltinkangas (left), Jouko Autio, Juhani Halla-aho and Mauri Myllykangas gather every morning for a couple of hours to talk at Teboil in Alajärvi.
However, according to everyone, the situation in the second round is not so clear. Matt Saari, 76, has bet that Haavisto will win. He does not disclose the amount.
“Betting does not mean that Matti Haavisto will vote”, Group Autio75, lingers mysteriously next door.
Service station owner Jari Hämeenniemi follow the words of the men behind the counter. Here, it remains very clear which things are talking about people.
Hämeenniemi serves as the chairman of the local association of basic Finns in Alajärvi and as the third vice-chairman of the council.
What is his estimate of who will take the win in the second round?
“Many say that the situation is a bit like choosing between plague and cholera. It sounds drastic, but this is how people have characterized the choice,” says Hämeenniemi.
Stubb, a right-winger, would fit the values of many, but he is considered too urban. According to many, Haavisto would be stable, but too green in terms of values. For some, Haavisto's sexual orientation is a difficult matter. Some consider it a private matter that does not affect the president's work.
“It's hard to say for sure how it will go. I would imagine that many will go over to Stubb's camp. Haavisto might still be too big a piece for many”, Hämeenniemi assesses.
Jari Hämeenniemi serves the oldest member of Teboil's Small Parliament, Benjam Salmenautio, 94. Salmenautio arrived at Teboil driving his own car.
Although the presidential elections are talking, in Hämeenniemi's opinion, Alajärvi has bigger problems than the election of the president, which should be talked about more.
Alajärvi, with its nine thousand inhabitants, is the center of the entire Lake District. However, Alajärvi, like the rest of South Ostrobothnia, is fighting against the loss of migration and the aging of the population. There are services, but for how long and how will they be financed. There would be jobs, but no employees. At the same time, there is unemployment.
These issues cannot be resolved in the presidential elections, says Hämeenniemi.
Hämeenniemi is happy that politics has interested the people of Alajärvi more than before. It can be seen as an increase in the voting percentage in the first round and bodes well for the municipal elections.
“I welcome everyone, regardless of party, who wants to find a common solution to these issues,” says Hämeenniemi.
In the evenings, young people meet in their cars in the ABC parking lot.
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