None of the main candidates to run the Finnish capital have a clear lead ahead oflocal elections in April, according to the latest Yle poll.

Taloustutkimus asked a thousand Helsinki voters who they would prefer to be the new mayor of their city.

Paavo Arhinmäki (Left) andAtte Harjanne (Green) were top of the ranking, on 18 percent each. After them came Social DemocratEveliina Heinäluoma andDaniel Sazonov (NCP), on 16 percent and 14 percent respectively.

The differences between the four top candidates are all within the poll's margin of error. The rest of the candidates for mayor all have considerably smaller support figures.

The top three candidates are all national politicians: Harjanne and Heinäluoma are both MPs, and Deputy Mayor Arhinmäki is a former minister.

Sazonov is currently the Deputy Mayor responsible for social, health and rescue services, but he lacks the profile of the MPs in the race.

"Maybe he has been a little bit invisible, even though he has been involved in Helsinki municipal politics and served as Deputy Mayor," saidAnni Jäntti, a university teacher of municipal and regional leadership at Tampere University.

That might not be a handicap for Sazonov, as the mayor is not directly elected: it goes to the party with the greatest total number of votes. That means a mayoral candidate can become mayor even if others in his or her party get more votes, so long as their party wins the election overall.

Arhinmäki and Heinäluoma's popularity shows the increasing strength of the left in Finland's capital.

"The Social Democrats' popularity has been clear in the polls, and Heinäluoma's support also now looks quite high," said Jäntti. "Arhinmäki stands out, as his support is also better than support for his party."

Harjanne also does well in the poll, although the Greens are expected to lose support overall according to a recentpoll for Helsingin Uutiset.

NCP and SDP fight it out

Yle's poll was not a measure of party support, but rather preferences for the position of Helsinki Mayor. Respondents were asked about their party preferences for background, however.

That data suggests that support is fairly evenly distributed among the leading parties.

"The situation is pretty similar to how it has been in recent polls," saidTuomo Turja of Taloustutkimus. "The National Coalition and SDP look to be fighting it out to become the largest party in Helsinki."

Nearly a quarter of all respondents said that they either couldn't say who they preferred as mayor, or rejected all the available candidates.

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That could be explained by the absence of some popular candidates who are not running.Pekka Haavisto was going to run as mayoral candidate for the Greens, but withdrew from the race.

The NCP is missingElina Valtonen andJan Vapaavuori, who both got large numbers of votes in recent elections.

Sazonov is the favoured mayoral candidate of some 65 percent of National Coalition voters. For example Paavo Arhinmäki is the preferred mayor for some 77 percent of Left Alliance voters, gaining clearly more of his own party's voters than Sazonov.

Finns Party MP and Speaker of ParliamentJussi Halla-aho got 19,000 votes in the last election. He is running again, but the party's mayoral candidate is MPWille Rydman.

He was the preferred mayor for five percent of respondents in Yle's poll.

Taloustutkimus interviewed more than a thousand Helsinki residents on 17 and 18 March. The margin of error in the poll is +-3.2 percentage points.

EDIT 28.3.2025 Corrected Heinäluoma's support figure in the body text.

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