Helsinki, Finland - Irja Askola was Thursday elected the first female bishop of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Askola, 57, defeated her male opponent, Matti Poutiainen, in a run-off. Preliminary tallies showed that Askola secured 591 electoral votes, while Poutiainen garnered 567 electoral votes.
A total of five candidates had been entered in the first round last month.
In all, 1,247 electoral college members - or 93 per cent - voted.
Askola is to be ordained as bishop of Helsinki in September.
She was first ordained as a pastor in 1988. From 1991 to 1999, she worked at the Conference of European Churches, an ecumenical fellowship of churches formed in 1959.
Some 4.3 million people - over 80 per cent of Finland's population - are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.