Iceland’s general election, on Saturday 29 October, is destined to be historic as the Icelandic Pirate Party — founded only four years ago — is bound to become one of the country’s largest parties.
You can expect to see large amount of people flocking to bars and restaurants in downtown Reykjavík late Saturday evening, coming from election night parties around the city (if the weather will not be brutally bad).
As has been evident for months, the right-wing coalition government of the Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn) and the Progressive Party (Framsóknarflokkurinn) will not survive. Opinion polls have repeatedly shown that the support of the Progressive Party has tanked since the 2013 elections.
According to two brand new polls (for RÚV and for Vísir) published today, 28 October, the Progressive Party has around 9% support, down from 24.4% of the popular vote in 2013, and combined the coalition parties enjoy a support of around 36% of the nation.
The new opinion polls are very similar. Below we use the numbers from Vísir’s poll. In brackets are the results of the 2013 election.
The Independence Party: 27.3% (26.7%) — conservative, right-wing
The Pirate Party: 18.4% support (5.1) — centrist
The Left Greens (Vinstrihreyfingin grænt framboð – VG): 16.4% (10.9%) — left
Viðreisn (Restoration): 10.5% (newly founded) — centrist/liberal, pro-EU
The Progressive Party: 9.3% (24.4%) — national, conservative
Bright Future (Björt Framtíð): 6.3% support (8.2%) — centrist, pro-EU
The Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin): 5.7% (12.9%) – Social democrats, pro-EU
Other parties are below the 5% mark needed to get members elected.
General election should have been held in Iceland on or before April 27 2017, but was moved to October after widespread protests last spring.
The protests kicked off when it was revealed that Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugson had ties to an off-shore shell company in the notorious tax haven Tortola. Sigmundur resigned and the coalition bought itself peace by declaring that the election would be moved forward.
Read more: Former PM takes a vacation after resigning over Panama Papers: Refuses to make tax returns public
The 63 members of Iceland's parliament (called Alþingi) are elected using closed list proportional representation in multi-member constituencies of 8 to 13 seats.
Iceland’s general election, on Saturday 29 October, is destined to be historic as the Icelandic Pirate Party — founded only four years ago — is bound to become one of the country’s largest parties.
You can expect to see large amount of people flocking to bars and restaurants in downtown Reykjavík late Saturday evening, coming from election night parties around the city (if the weather will not be brutally bad).
As has been evident for months, the right-wing coalition government of the Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn) and the Progressive Party (Framsóknarflokkurinn) will not survive. Opinion polls have repeatedly shown that the support of the Progressive Party has tanked since the 2013 elections.
According to two brand new polls (for RÚV and for Vísir) published today, 28 October, the Progressive Party has around 9% support, down from 24.4% of the popular vote in 2013, and combined the coalition parties enjoy a support of around 36% of the nation.
The new opinion polls are very similar. Below we use the numbers from Vísir’s poll. In brackets are the results of the 2013 election.
The Independence Party: 27.3% (26.7%) — conservative, right-wing
The Pirate Party: 18.4% support (5.1) — centrist
The Left Greens (Vinstrihreyfingin grænt framboð – VG): 16.4% (10.9%) — left
Viðreisn (Restoration): 10.5% (newly founded) — centrist/liberal, pro-EU
The Progressive Party: 9.3% (24.4%) — national, conservative
Bright Future (Björt Framtíð): 6.3% support (8.2%) — centrist, pro-EU
The Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin): 5.7% (12.9%) – Social democrats, pro-EU
Other parties are below the 5% mark needed to get members elected.
General election should have been held in Iceland on or before April 27 2017, but was moved to October after widespread protests last spring.
The protests kicked off when it was revealed that Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugson had ties to an off-shore shell company in the notorious tax haven Tortola. Sigmundur resigned and the coalition bought itself peace by declaring that the election would be moved forward.
Read more: Former PM takes a vacation after resigning over Panama Papers: Refuses to make tax returns public
The 63 members of Iceland's parliament (called Alþingi) are elected using closed list proportional representation in multi-member constituencies of 8 to 13 seats.
