The second-round voting of the Finnish presidential election officially started on Sunday.

At 9:00 am local time (0700 GMT), voters across Finland started to vote for their new president in polling stations near their residential places.

In the first-round voting of the election, which holds once every six years, none of the eight presidential candidates obtained more than half of the votes.

The second-round voting will be held between the presidential candidate of the National Coalition Party Sauli Niinisto and the Green League candidate Pekka Haavisto, who secured the most votes in the first round of voting. The candidate who receives more votes in the second round will become the new president.

According to Finnish Broadcasting Company's new survey, Niinisto maintained his lead in the polls ahead of the second round of the presidential election. About 62 percent of the respondents were set to support Niinisto, while 38 percent would back Haavisto. Those figures excluded 23 percent of the respondents who either would not vote or did not want to say who they would vote for.

According to the Finnish Constitution, the President of Finland is elected by citizens' direct voting. The president's term of office is six years and the president may serve for another term once.

The new president will replace Tarja Halonen, Finland's first female president, who has served for two six-year terms.

According to the Ministry of Justice, the vote counting of the second-round voting in the whole country is expected to complete around 22:00 (2000 GMT) on Sunday.