Former President Ståhlberg, who acted as his informal advisor, persuaded him to seek re-election through normal means when he bluntly told Paasikivi: "If the Finnish people would not bother to elect a President every six years, they truly would not deserve an independent and democratic republic."

By contrast, the Agrarian presidential candidate, Urho Kekkonen, spoke in about 130 election meetings.

The Agrarians criticized Paasikivi more subtly and indirectly, referring to his advanced age (79 years), and speaking anecdotally about aged masters of farmhouses, who had not realized in time that they should have surrendered their houses' leadership to their sons.

Kekkonen claimed that the incumbent Social Democratic minority government of Prime Minister K.A.

Otherwise Kekkonen could have been narrowly elected President - provided that all the Communist and People's Democratic presidential electors would also have voted for him.