2017 Icelandic parliamentary election
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Parliamentary elections are due to be held in Iceland on 28 October 2017. On 15 September 2017, the three-party coalition government collapsed after the departure of Bright Future over a scandal involving Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson's father writing a letter recommending a convicted paedophile have his "honour restored".[3][4] Benediktsson subsequently called for a snap election,[5] which was officially scheduled for 28 October 2017 following the dissolution of the Althing.
Background
A three-party coalition of the Independence Party, Reform Party and Bright Future had been put together after the 2016 election, which held a narrow majority of 1 seat in Parliament. The Prime Minister chosen was Bjarni Benediktsson, head of the Independence Party.
The Icelandic legal system has a mechanism whereby a convicted individual can have their "honour restored", that is have certain civil rights restored, from five years after serving their sentence[6] if three letters of recommendation from persons of good character who know the individual are provided. Hjalti Sigurjón Hauksson was convicted in 2004 for multiple rapes of his stepdaughter from age five for twelve years. He served a gaol term of five and a half years. Bjarni's father, Benedikt Sveinsson, was a friend of Hjalti Sigurjón's. Benedikt signed a letter of recommendation, which he said Hjalti Sigurjón brought to him already drafted. Bjarni was informed on this in July 2017 by the justice minister, Sigridur Andersen, also of the Independence Party, but Benedikt's support was not revealed by the government at first.[7] Sigridur refused to say in public who had signed the letter at first, but was ordered to do so by a Parliamentary committee. Bjarni said it would have been illegal for him to reveal the information earlier.[8]
Benedikt's involvement emerged in September. Bright Future left the coalition, accusing the Independence Party of a "serious breach of trust". Benedikt apologised for signing the letter. Sigridur said she is preparing a bill to reform the restored honour system.[9]
Bjarni acknowledged the need for new elections, although the decision is made by the President, Gudni Johannesson. Other parties, including the Pirate Party, support new elections.[10]
Electoral system
The 63 members of the Althing are elected using closed list proportional representation in multi-member constituencies of 8 to 13 seats.[11] Of the 63 seats, 54 are elected using constituency results and determined using the d'Hondt method. The remaining nine supplementary seats are awarded to parties that crossed the 5% national electoral threshold in order to give them a total number of seats equivalent to their national share of the vote.[11]
Participating parties
- Parties currently represented in the Althing
- Bright Future, list letter A
- Progressive Party, list letter B
- Reform, list letter C
- Independence Party, list letter D
- Social Democratic Alliance, list letter S
- Left-Green Movement, list letter V
- Pirate Party, list letter P
- Other parties that competed in the 2016 election
- People's Party, list letter F
- Humanist Party, list letter H
- People's Front of Iceland, list letter R
- Icelandic National Front, list letter E
- Dawn, list letter T
Opinion polls
Date | Source | D | V | P | B | C | A | S | F | Other | Lead |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;"| | style="background:Template:Left-Green Movement/meta/color;"| | style="background:Template:Pirate Party (Iceland)/meta/color;"| | style="background:Template:Progressive Party (Iceland)/meta/color;"| | style="background:Template:Bright Future (Iceland)/meta/color;"| | style="background:Template:Social Democratic Alliance/meta/color;"| | style="background:Template:People's Party (Iceland, 2016)/meta/color;"| | |||||
18 Sep 2017 | Zenter | 26.4 | 22.8 | 12.5 | 10.5 | 2.7 | 5.6 | 9.0 | 9.8 | 2.5 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 3.6 |
30 Aug 2017 | Gallup | 26.3 | 19.5 | 13.1 | 10.8 | 4.8 | 2.8 | 9.7 | 10.6 | 2.4 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 6.8 |
18 Aug 2017 | MMR | 24.5 | 20.5 | 13.5 | 10.1 | 6.0 | 3.6 | 10.6 | 6.7 | 4.5 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 4.0 |
1 Aug 2017 | Gallup | 26.5 | 21.2 | 12.9 | 11.4 | 5.3 | 3.7 | 9.1 | 8.4 | 1.5 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 5.3 |
25 Jul 2017 | MMR | 29.3 | 20.4 | 13.3 | 9.6 | 4.6 | 2.4 | 10.6 | 6.1 | 3.6 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 8.9 |
1 Jul 2017 | Gallup | 27.5 | 21.5 | 14.2 | 11.3 | 5.6 | 3.3 | 9.2 | 3.8 | 3.6 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 6.0 |
14 Jun 2017 | MMR | 24.9 | 20.6 | 13.7 | 13.4 | 5.2 | 2.9 | 11.3 | 2.8 | 5.2 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 4.3 |
1 Jun 2017 | Gallup | 25.6 | 24.3 | 12.9 | 11.0 | 6.2 | 3.4 | 9.4 | 4.2 | 3.0 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 1.3 |
1 Jun 2017 | MMR | 25.6 | 21.4 | 14.1 | 12.2 | 5.5 | 3.4 | 9.3 | 3.6 | 5.0 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 4.2 |
2 May 2017 | MMR | 25.2 | 23.4 | 12.8 | 11.1 | 5.0 | 3.2 | 10.6 | 3.2 | 5.4 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 1.8 |
2 May 2017 | Gallup | 26.4 | 24.0 | 13.1 | 10.9 | 6.9 | 4.4 | 8.3 | 3.7 | 3.3 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 2.4 |
1 Apr 2017 | Gallup | 29.2 | 24.5 | 10.3 | 10.5 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 8.3 | 2.8 | 2.4 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 4.7 |
23 Mar 2017 | Fréttablaðið | 32.1 | 27.3 | 14.3 | 7.0 | 3.1 | 3.8 | 8.8 | 3.6 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 4.8 | |
14 Mar 2017 | MMR | 25.4 | 23.5 | 13.7 | 11.4 | 5.5 | 5.0 | 8.8 | 3.7 | 3.0 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 1.9 |
2 Mar 2017 | Gallup | 27.6 | 24.3 | 12.0 | 10.7 | 5.4 | 6.4 | 8.3 | 2.4 | 2.9 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 3.3 |
27 Feb 2017 | MMR | 26.9 | 23.9 | 11.6 | 12.2 | 6.3 | 5.2 | 8.0 | 2.5 | 3.4 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 3.3 |
20 Feb 2017 | MMR | 24.4 | 27.0 | 11.9 | 10.7 | 6.2 | 5.4 | 10.0 | 2.6 | 1.8 | style="background:Template:Left-Green Movement/meta/color;color:white;"| 2.6 |
5 Feb 2017 | MMR | 23.8 | 27.0 | 13.6 | 9.7 | 5.6 | 5.3 | 7.8 | 3.6 | 3.6 | style="background:Template:Left-Green Movement/meta/color;color:white;"| 3.2 |
1 Feb 2017 | Gallup | 28.0 | 22.8 | 13.4 | 10.5 | 5.3 | 7.2 | 7.3 | 3.3 | 2.2 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 5.2 |
26 Jan 2017 | MMR | 24.6 | 22.0 | 13.6 | 12.5 | 6.8 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 3.6 | 2.9 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 2.6 |
17 Jan 2017 | MMR | 26.1 | 24.3 | 14.6 | 10.9 | 6.9 | 6.3 | 6.4 | 2.1 | 2.4 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 1.8 |
29 Dec 2016 | Gallup | 29.0 | 20.0 | 14.6 | 8.9 | 7.4 | 8.7 | 7.5 | 2.2 | 1.7 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 9.0 |
29 Dec 2016 | Gallup | 29.0 | 20.0 | 14.6 | 8.9 | 7.4 | 8.7 | 7.5 | 2.2 | 1.7 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 9.0 |
15 Dec 2016 | Fréttablaðið | 31.8 | 17.0 | 13.1 | 9.7 | 10.1 | 10.8 | 5.6 | 1.9 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 14.8 | |
1 Dec 2016 | MMR | 26.1 | 20.5 | 15.6 | 8.0 | 7.8 | 9.8 | 6.6 | 1.6 | 4.0 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 5.6 |
30 Nov 2016 | Gallup | 28.0 | 20.9 | 13.7 | 9.0 | 8.9 | 8.6 | 5.3 | 3.0 | 2.6 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 7.1 |
14 Nov 2016 | MMR | 26.0 | 20.7 | 11.9 | 9.4 | 10.6 | 9.6 | 5.6 | 3.4 | 2.8 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 5.3 |
29 Oct 2016 | Election | 29.0 | 15.9 | 14.5 | 11.5 | 10.5 | 7.2 | 5.7 | 3.5 | 2.2 | style="background:Template:Independence Party (Iceland)/meta/color;color:white;"| 13.1 |
Footnotes
- ^ The Pirate Party's formal chair for the 2017-18 period is Halldóra Mogensen,[1] but Birgitta is chair of the Parliamentary party and often described as the party's informal leader.[2]
References
- ^ Alþingi: Halldóra Mogensen, official profile (Icelandic), accessed 18 September 2017
- ^ Iceland’s ‘Pirate Party’ Is Now The Biggest Political Party MintPress News, 19 May 2016
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41280080
- ^ Milne, Richard (15 September 2017). "Paedophile rehabilitation scandal brings down Iceland's coalition". Financial Times. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
- ^ Henley, Jon (15 September 2017). "Row over sexual abuse letter brings down Iceland's government". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
- ^ http://icelandmag.visir.is/article/analysis-government-falls-shocking-scandal-involving-one-icelands-most-notorious-child-abuse
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41280080
- ^ http://www.smh.com.au/world/iceland-government-collapses-after-paedophile-scandal-20170916-gyitc5.html
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41280080
- ^ http://www.smh.com.au/world/iceland-government-collapses-after-paedophile-scandal-20170916-gyitc5.html
- ^ a b Electoral system IPU