Iceland elects on a national level a mostly 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
editEligibility
editAccording 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 be eligible to vote in these elections.[2]
Voting procedures
editBy law, municipal and presidential elections take place on a Saturday. Parliamentary elections have also traditionally taken place on Saturdays since 1983, although a particular weekday is not mandated by law. Voters are required to present a government issued photo ID such as a passport or a driving license. All voting is done by paper ballots. The voter gets a single ballot containing ordered electoral lists for every party.[citation needed]
Schedule
edit| Position | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| President (1 position) |
None | None | Election | None | None |
| Parliament (63 seats) |
None | None | Election | None | None |
| Municipalities (64 councils) |
Election | None | None | None | Election |
Latest elections
edit2022 Icelandic municipal elections
editOverall
edit| Party | Seats | /– | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Independence Party | 113 | –5 | |
| Progressive Party | 69 | 23 | |
| Social Democratic Alliance | 26 | –3 | |
| Left-Green Movement | 9 | 1 | |
| Centre Party | 6 | –3 | |
| Reform Party | 5 | –1 | |
| Pirate Party | 4 | 1 | |
| People's Party | 2 | 1 | |
| Icelandic Socialist Party | 2 | 1 | |
| Other party lists | 165 | –34 | |
| Independents | 69 | –13 | |
| Total | 470 | –32 | |
2021 parliamentary elections
editCompared 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]
 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | /– | |
| Independence Party | 48,708 | 24.39 | 16 | 0 | |
| Progressive Party | 34,501 | 17.27 | 13 | 5 | |
| Left-Green Movement | 25,114 | 12.57 | 8 | –3 | |
| Social Democratic Alliance | 19,825 | 9.93 | 6 | –1 | |
| People's Party | 17,672 | 8.85 | 6 | 2 | |
| Pirate Party | 17,233 | 8.63 | 6 | 0 | |
| Reform Party | 16,628 | 8.33 | 5 | 1 | |
| Centre Party | 10,879 | 5.45 | 3 | –4 | |
| Icelandic Socialist Party | 8,181 | 4.10 | 0 | New | |
| Liberal Democratic Party | 845 | 0.42 | 0 | New | |
| Responsible Future | 144 | 0.07 | 0 | New | |
| Total | 199,730 | 100.00 | 63 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 199,730 | 97.92 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 4,249 | 2.08 | |||
| Total votes | 203,979 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 254,681 | 80.09 | |||
| Source: Statistics Iceland | |||||
By constituency
edit| 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
editIt 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
edit
| 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
editReferences
edit- ^ a b "Electoral register and voting rights". www.skra.is. Þjóðskrá Íslands. Archived from the original on 2019-07-24.
- ^ "Multicultural Centre 2022 elections". www.mcc.is/. MCC.
- ^ "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.
- ^ 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) - ^ 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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Kosningasigur kvenna vekur heimsathygli". Morgunblaðið (in Icelandic). 26 September 2021. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
External links
edit- Adam Carr's Election Archive
- NSD: European Election Database - Iceland Archived 2018-11-13 at the Wayback Machine publishes regional level election data; allows for comparisons of election results, 1991–2009
- Election history