Description of Electoral System:

(courtesy of IFES election guide)

The President is elected by popular vote to serve a 4-year term. In the Parliament (Althing) 63 members are elected by proportional representation to serve 4-year terms.

Electoral Systems Snapshot

(Courtesy of International IDEA)

*Click on links for definitions

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Most recent elections

(courtesy of wikipedia)

The 2007 Icelandic general election were held on 12 May 2007. Six parties participated in the elections: the two parties of the then government coalition, the right-wing Independence Party and the centrist Progressive Party, and the opposition parties: the social democratic Alliance, the Left-Green Movement and the Liberal Party; one new party, the environmentalist Iceland's Movement – Living Land also participated in the elections. The Fighting Union, which is in favour of disabled and senior citizens' rights, had failed to present lists of candidates in due time in five out of six constituencies, and therefore decided to withdraw from the elections.

The then governing parties got a razor thin majority, 32 members of the Parliament against the opposition's 31, due to considerable losses for the Progressive Party, which had the worst election in its more than 90-year history. Major outcomes of the elections were also the considerable strengthening of the Left-Green Movement, was the election's big winner, and the failure of Iceland's Movement – Living Land to clear the election threshold and enter the parliament, though it got 3.3% of the votes. After five days of speculation, it was decided on 17 May that the government would resign and the 12-year long coalition between Independence Party and Progressive would end. Later the same day, the leaders of the Independence Party and of the largest opposition party, the Social Democratic Alliance, Geir H. Haarde, the outgoing Prime Minister, and Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, former mayor of Reykjavík, decided to try to form a new majority coalition. Haarde formally resigned on 18 May on behalf of his outgoing government. Simultaneously, he was assigned by the President of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the mandate to form a new majority coalition. The coalition meetings between the Independence Party and the Alliance were held in Reykjavík and at Þingvellir, where Alþingi was established in the year of 930. On 22 May the two parties reached an agreement, and the new government took over on 24 May.