2006 Finnish presidential election
Presidential elections were held in Finland on 15 and 29 January 2006 which resulted in the re-election of Tarja Halonen as President of Finland for a second six-year term.
Image: Tarja Halonen 2003
Image: Sauli Ninisto (cropped)
Tarja Halonen candidate of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, winner of 1st round with 46.3% of votes
Sauli Niinistö candidate of the National Coalition Party, finished 2nd on 1st round with 24.1% of the votes
Tarja Kaarina Halonen is a Finnish politician who served as the 11th president of Finland, and the first and to date only woman to hold the position, from 2000 to 2012. She first rose to prominence as a lawyer with the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), and as the Prime Minister's parliamentary secretary (1974–1975) and a member of the City Council of Helsinki (1977–1996). Halonen was a Social Democratic Party member of parliament from 1979 until her election to the presidency in 2000. She also served as a minister at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health from 1987 to 1990, as Minister of Justice from 1990 to 1991, and as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 2000.
Halonen in 2011
5-year-old Tarja Halonen in 1948
Tarja Halonen in 1975, working Finnish Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister.
Portrait of Tarja Halonen in 2004