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Elections in Iceland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Iceland elects on a national level a ceremonial head of state—the president—and a legislature. The president is elected for a four-year term by the people. The parliament (Alþingi) has 63 members, elected for a four-year term by proportional representation using the D'Hondt method with a closed list. Iceland has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which no one party typically has a chance of gaining power alone which typically results in a hung parliament, so parties must work with each other to form coalition governments.

The last election was on 1 June 2024.

Voting

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Eligibility

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According to Registers Iceland, All Icelandic nationals who have lived abroad for less than eight years are automatically registered to vote as long as they are 18 and have lived in Iceland at some point.[1] Icelandic citizens who lived abroad for more than eight years must register to vote, as long as they are a citizen, at least eighteen years old, and have had legal domicile in Iceland

Foreign nationals are not allowed to vote in presidential elections, parliamentary elections, or national referendums.[1] Danish nationals who lived in Iceland on 6 March 1946 or any point ten years before that are eligible to vote.

Foreign nationals from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland can vote in municipal elections if they have registered their domicile in Iceland before election day. Foreign nationals from other countries have to live in Iceland for three years to vote in these elections.[2]

Schedule

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Position 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
President
(1 position)
None None Election None None
Parliament
(63 seats)
None None None Election None
Municipalities
(64 councils)
Election None None None Election

Latest elections

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2022 Icelandic municipal elections

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Overall

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PartySeats+/–
Independence Party113–5
Progressive Party69+23
Social Democratic Alliance26–3
Left-Green Movement9+1
Centre Party6–3
Reform Party5–1
Pirate Party4+1
People's Party2+1
Icelandic Socialist Party2+1
Other party lists165–34
Independents69–13
Total470–32

2021 parliamentary elections

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Compared to polling, the Progressive Party and the People's Party performed better than expectations, while the Social Democratic Alliance, the Reform Party, the Pirate Party, and the new Icelandic Socialist Party performed slightly worse. The Centre Party saw its vote percentage and seat count reduced by half compared to the prior elections, while the Progressive Party saw a vote percentage increase of over 6% and a seat increase of 5. The governing grand coalition of the Independence Party, the Left-Green Movement, and the Progressive Party were expected to negotiate to continue their cooperation.[3][4]

On 9 October, Birgir Þórarinsson, who was originally elected to represent the Centre Party, announced that he was defecting to the Independence Party, making him the 17th member of the Althing for the Independence Party and leaving the Centre Party with just two members.[5]

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Independence Party48,70824.39160
Progressive Party34,50117.2713+5
Left-Green Movement25,11412.578–3
Social Democratic Alliance19,8259.936–1
People's Party17,6728.856+2
Pirate Party17,2338.6360
Reform Party16,6288.335+1
Centre Party10,8795.453–4
Icelandic Socialist Party8,1814.100New
Liberal Democratic Party8450.420New
Responsible Future1440.070New
Total199,730100.00630
Valid votes199,73097.92
Invalid/blank votes4,2492.08
Total votes203,979100.00
Registered voters/turnout254,68180.09
Source: Statistics Iceland

By constituency

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Constituency D B V S F P C M
Reykjavík North 20.9 12.3 15.9 12.6 7.7 12.8 7.7 3.5
Reykjavík South 22.8 11.5 14.7 13.3 8.9 10.9 8.6 4.1
Southwest 30.2 14.5 12.1 8.1 7.6 8.3 11.4 4.5
Northwest 22.5 25.8 11.5 6.9 8.8 6.3 6.2 7.4
Northeast 18.5 25.6 12.9 10.5 8.6 5.3 5.4 8.9
South 24.6 23.9 7.4 7.6 12.9 5.6 6.2 7.4
Constituency D B V S F P C M Total
Reykjavík North 2 1 2 2 1 2 1 0 11
Reykjavík South 3 1 2 1 1 2 1 0 11
Southwest 4 2 1 1 1 2 2 0 13
Northwest 2 3 1 0 1 0 0 1 8
Northeast 2 3 2 1 1 0 0 1 10
South 3 3 0 1 1 0 1 1 10

Recounts

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It was initially reported that 33 women and 30 men were elected, making Iceland the first European nation to have a female-majority parliament.[6] Among them was Lenya Rún Taha Karim of the Pirate Party, who at 21 would become the youngest MP in Iceland's history.[7] Following a recount in the Northwest Constituency, the representation became a majority of men.[8] The Left-Green Movement and the Pirate Party both requested recounts in the South Constituency.[9]

2020 presidential election

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Candidate Party Votes %
Guðni Th. Jóhannesson Independent 150,913 92.18
Guðmundur Franklín Jónsson Independent 12,797 7.82
Invalid/blank votes 5,111
Total 168,821 100
Registered voters/turnout 252,267 66.92
Source: RÚV, [1]


See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Electoral register and voting rights". www.skra.is. Þjóðskrá Íslands. Archived from the original on 2019-07-24.
  2. ^ "Multicultural Centre 2022 elections". www.mcc.is/. MCC.
  3. ^ "Iceland government poised to win majority, but future uncertain". Al Jazeera. 26 September 2021. Archived from the original on 16 October 2021. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
  4. ^ Fontaine, Andie Sophia Fontaine (26 September 2021). "Iceland's coalition government set to retain power after election". Euronews. Archived from the original on 16 October 2021. Retrieved 16 October 2021. Updated 27 September 2021{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  5. ^ Fontaine, Andie Sophia (11 October 2021). "From Iceland — Independence Party Gains New MP, Centre Party Loses One". The Reykjavik Grapevine (in Icelandic). Archived from the original on 11 October 2021. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  6. ^ "Iceland elects Europe's first women-majority parliament". CNN. Reuters. 26 September 2021. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  7. ^ "Kosningasigur kvenna vekur heimsathygli". Morgunblaðið (in Icelandic). 26 September 2021. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  8. ^ Gronholt-pedersen, Jacob; Jacobsen, Stine (26 September 2021). "Iceland will have a male-majority parliament after all, election recount shows". Reuters. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  9. ^ Óttar Kolbeinsson Proppé (26 September 2021). "Fleiri vilja endurtalningu í Suðurkjördæmi". Vísir.is (in Icelandic). Archived from the original on 27 September 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
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