Icelandic parliamentary election, 2003

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Icelandic parliamentary election, 2003
Flag of Iceland.svg
←  1999 10 May 2003 (2003-05-10) 2007  →
All 63 seats in the Althing
Turnout 87.84%

 First partySecond partyThird party
  Bilden ar tagen vid Nordiska radets session i Oslo, 2003.jpg Ossur Skarphedinsson, utrikesminister Island. Nordiska radets session 2009 (1).jpg Halldor Asgrimsson generalsekreterare Nordiska ministerradet (2).jpg
Leader Davíð Oddsson Össur Skarphéðinsson Halldór Ásgrímsson
Party Independence Social Democratic Progressive
Last election26 seats17 seats12 seats
Seats won
22 / 63
20 / 63
12 / 63
Seat changeDecrease2.svg 4Increase2.svg 3Increase2.svg 0
Popular vote61,70156,70032,484
Percentage33.68%30.95%17.73%
SwingDecrease2.svg 7.00Increase2.svg 4.20%Decrease2.svg 0.70%
 Fourth partyFifth party
  Islands statsminister Steingrimur J. Sigfusson Nordiska radets session 2010.jpg Gudjon Arnar Kristjansson.jpg
Leader Steingrímur J. Sigfússon Guðjón Arnar Kristjánsson
Party Left-Green Liberal
Seats before6 seats2
Seats won
5 / 63
4 / 63
Seat changeDecrease2.svg 1Increase2.svg 2
Popular vote16,12913,523
Percentage8.81%7.38%
SwingDecrease2.svg 0.3%Increase2.svg 3.20%
Prime Minister before election

Davíð Oddsson
Independence

Elected Prime Minister

Davíð Oddsson
Independence

Iceland
Coat of arms of Iceland.svg
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Iceland
Constitution

Parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on 10 May 2003. [1] The Independence Party remained the largest party in the Althing, winning 22 of the 63 seats. [2]

Iceland island republic in Northern Europe

Iceland is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic, with a population of 348,580 and an area of 103,000 km2 (40,000 sq mi), making it the most sparsely populated country in Europe. The capital and largest city is Reykjavík, with Reykjavík and the surrounding areas in the southwest of the country being home to over two-thirds of the population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active. The interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains, and glaciers, and many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a temperate climate, despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle. Its high latitude and marine influence keep summers chilly, with most of the archipelago having a tundra climate.

Independence Party (Iceland) political party in Iceland

The Independence Party is a liberal-conservative, Eurosceptic political party in Iceland. It is currently the largest party in the Althing, with 16 seats. The chairman of the party is Bjarni Benediktsson. The secretary of the party is Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir.

Althing unicameral parliament of Iceland

The Alþingi is the national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world, a claim shared by Tynwald. The Althing was founded in 930 at Þingvellir, situated approximately 45 kilometres (28 mi) east of what later became the country's capital, Reykjavík. Even after Iceland's union with Norway in 1262, the Althing still held its sessions at Þingvellir until 1800, when it was discontinued for 45 years. It was restored in 1844 and moved to Reykjavík, where it has resided ever since. The present parliament building, the Alþingishús, was built in 1881, made of hewn Icelandic stone.

Contents

Background

For the previous twelve years Davíð Oddsson of the Independence Party had been Prime Minister of Iceland and since the 1995 election had been ruling in coalition with the Progressive Party. [3] At the last election in 1999 the two ruling parties together won 38 of the 63 seats, to maintain a majority in the Icelandic parliament. [4]

Davíð Oddsson Icelandic politician

Davíð Oddsson is an Icelandic politician, and the longest-serving Prime Minister of Iceland, in office from 1991 to 2004. From 2004 to 2005 he served as Foreign Minister. Previously, he was Mayor of Reykjavík from 1982 to 1991, and he chaired the board of governors of the Central Bank of Iceland from 2005 to 2009. The collapse of Iceland's banking system led to vocal demands for his resignation, both from members of the Icelandic public and from the new Icelandic Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, which resulted in his being replaced as head of the Central Bank in March 2009. In September 2009 he was hired as the editor of Morgunblaðið, one of Iceland's largest newspapers, a decision that caused nationwide controversy and was followed by resignations and widespread terminated subscriptions. He contested the election for President of Iceland on 25 June 2016 but lost to Guðni Jóhannesson.

Prime Minister of Iceland Head of Icelands government

The Prime Minister of Iceland is Iceland's head of government. The prime minister is appointed formally by the President and exercises executive authority along with the cabinet subject to parliamentary support.

Constituencies

There are six constituencies in Iceland. According to the Law on Parliamentary Elections (nr.24/2000), each constituency is allocated nine seats decided by proportional voting in the constituency. In addition there are nine Leveling seats (either 1 or 2 per constituency, depending on their population size) which are allocated with the aim of achieving proportionality based on the overall number of party votes at the national level. The number of constituency seats shall however be adjusted ahead of the next election, if the ratio of residents with suffrage per available seat in the constituency becomes more than twice as big in the latest election, comparing the constituency with the highest ratio against that with the lowest ratio. In that case a constituency seat is reallocated from the constituency with the lowest ratio to that with the highest, until the various ratios comply with the rule. However, the total number of seats (including leveling seats) must never become less than six in any constituency. [5] The box below displays the number of available seats in each constituency at the 2003 parliamentary election. [6]

Leveling seats, commonly known also as adjustment seats, are an election mechanism employed for many years by all Scandinavian countries and Iceland in elections for their national legislatures. In 2013, Germany also introduced national leveling seats for their national parliament, the Bundestag. Leveling seats are seats of additional members elected to supplement the members directly elected by each constituency. The purpose of these additional seats is to ensure that each party's share of the total seats is roughly proportional to the parties' overall shares of votes at the national level.

Suffrage right to vote

Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections. In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to vote is called active suffrage, as distinct from passive suffrage, which is the right to stand for election. The combination of active and passive suffrage is sometimes called full suffrage.

Constituencies Iceland.png
ConstituencyConstituency seats Leveling seats Total seats
Reykjavík North 9211
Reykjavík South 9211
SW 9211
NW 9110
NE 9110
South 9110
Total54963

Method for apportionment of constituency seats

The available constituency seats are first distributed to each party according to the D'Hondt method, so that proportional representation is ensured within each of the constituencies. The next step is to apportion these party distributed seats to the candidates within the party having the highest "vote score", after counting both direct candidate votes and their share of party votes in the constituency. In Iceland the "candidate vote system" is that, for each constituency, each party provides a pre-ranked list of candidates beneath each party name (listed according to the preferred order decided by the party), but where the voters voting for the party can alter this pre-ranked order by renumbering the individual candidates and/or crossing out those candidates they do not like, so that such candidates will not get a share of the voter's "personal vote" for the party. [6] [7]

The D'Hondt method or the Jefferson method is a highest averages method for allocating seats, and is thus a type of party-list proportional representation. The method described is named in the United States after Thomas Jefferson, who introduced the method for proportional allocation of seats in the United States House of Representatives in 1791, and in Europe after Belgian mathematician Victor D'Hondt, who described it in 1878 for proportional allocation of parliamentary seats to the parties. There are two forms: closed list and an open list.

As a restriction on the possibility of re-ranking candidates, it is however only possible to alter the first several candidates on the list. The borderline for alterations is drawn for the first three candidates if the party only win one of the total seats in the constituency, or if more than one seat is won the borderline shall be drawn at the pre-ranked number equal to two times the total number of seats being won by the party in the constituency. So if a party has won two seats in a constituency, then the voter is only allowed to re-rank the top four ranked candidates on the list, with any rank altering by voters below this line simply being ignored when subsequently calculating the candidate vote shares within each party. Final calculation of the candidate vote shares is always done according to the Borda method, where all candidates above the previously described borderline in the ranking are granted voting fraction values according to the voters noted rank. If the number of considered candidates consist of four (as in the given example), then the first ranked candidate is assigned a value of 1 (a so-called full personal vote), the next one get the value 0.75 (1/4 less), followed likewise by 0.50 and 0.25 respectively for the two last candidates. If the number of considered candidates instead had been six (due to winning 3 seats), then the first ranked candidate in a similar way would be assigned a value of 1 (a so-called full personal vote), with the following five candidates receiving respectively 5/6, 4/6, 3/6, 2/6 and 1/6. As mentioned above, crossed out names will always be allocated a 0.00 value. The accumulated total score of the candidates voting fractions, will be used in determining which candidates receive the seats won by their party. Note that candidate vote scores are not directly comparable to candidates from other parties, as how many seats are being won in a constituency by a particular party will effect how their candidates receive voting fractions (like in the above examples, where a candidate ranked number four for a party winning two seats would receive a voting fraction of 0.25, compared to 0.50 for an equally ranked candidate belonging to a party winning 3 seats) [6] [7]

The Borda count is a family of single-winner election methods in which voters rank options or candidates in order of preference. The Borda count determines the outcome of a debate or the winner of an election by giving each candidate, for each ballot, a number of points corresponding to the number of candidates ranked lower. Once all votes have been counted the option or candidate with the most points is the winner. The Borda count is intended to elect broadly-acceptable options or candidates, rather than those preferred by a majority, and so is often described as a consensus-based voting system rather than a majoritarian one.

Method for apportionment of leveling seats

After the initial apportionment of constituency seats, all the parties that exceed the election threshold of 5% nationally will also qualify to potentially be granted the extra leveling seats, which seek to adjust the result towards seat proportionality at the national level.

The calculation procedure for the distribution of leveling seats is, first, for each party having exceeded the national threshold of 5%, to calculate the ratio of its total number of votes at the national level divided by the sum of one extra seat added to the number of seats the party have so far won. The first leveling seat will go to the party with the highest ratio of votes per seat. The same calculation process is then repeated, until all 9 leveling seats have been allocated to specific parties. It should be noted that a party's "votes per seat" ratio will change during this calculation process, after each additional leveling seat being won. The second and final step is for each party being granted a leveling seat to pin point, across all constituencies, which of its runner-up candidates (candidates that came short of winning direct election through a constituency seat) should then win this additional seat. This selection is made by first identifying the constituency having the strongest "relative constituency vote shares for this additional seat of the party", which is decided by another proportional calculation, where the "relative vote share for the party list in each constituency", is divided with the sum of "one extra seat added to the number of already won constituency seats by the party list in the constituency". When this strongest constituency has been identified, the leveling seat will be automatically granted to the highest placed unelected runner-up candidate on the party list in this constituency, who among the remaining candidates have the highest personal vote score (the same figure as the one used when ranking candidates for constituency seats). [6] [7]

The above described method is used for apportionment of all the party allocated leveling seats. Note that when selecting which of a party's constituencies shall receive its apportioned leveling seat, this identification may only happen in exactly the same numerical order as the leveling seats were calculated at the party level. This is important because the number of available leveling seats are limited per constituency, meaning that the last calculated leveling seats in all circumstances can never be granted to candidates who belong to constituencies where the available leveling seats already were granted to other parties. [6] [7]

Campaign

The Social Democratic Alliance was the main left wing opposition party and their leader, Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, a former mayor of Reykjavík, was hoping to become the first female Prime Minister of Iceland. [4] They were hoping to capitalise on a feeling that it was time for a change in government. [8] The Social Democrats stressed welfare, health and housing which they said the Independence Party had failed to address. [9]

The Independence Party campaigned on their record of economic growth over the past decade. [10] This had seen Icelandic businesses expand abroad and Iceland become the 6th richest county per capita in purchasing power parity. [11]

Opinion polls as the election neared showed the Independence Party with about 34-35% support and with a small lead over the Social Democratic Alliance which was getting 27-33% support. [3]

Results

The Independence Party maintained a narrow lead over the opposition Social Democratic Alliance. [12] However this was their worst election result since the 1987 election, as their vote dropped from 40.7% in the previous election to only 33.7%. [13] The Social Democrats gained three seats; however their leader, Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, was not elected, [14] as she had only placed herself 5th on the list of candidates for her district. [14]

V  •  T  •  E Summary of the 10 May 2003 Icelandic parliamentary election results
PartyChairperson(s)Votes%±Seats±
Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn) Davíð Oddsson 61,70133.68Decrease2.svg 7.022Decrease2.svg 4
Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin) Össur Skarphéðinsson 56,70030.95Increase2.svg 4.220Increase2.svg 3
Progressive Party (Framsóknarflokkurinn) Halldór Ásgrímsson 32,48417.73Decrease2.svg 0.712Steady2.svg 0
Left-Green Movement (Vinstrihreyfingin – grænt framboð) Steingrímur J. Sigfússon 16,1298.81Decrease2.svg 0.35Decrease2.svg 1
Liberal Party (Frjálslyndi flokkurinn) Guðjón Arnar Kristjánsson 13,5237.38Increase2.svg 3.24Increase2.svg 2
New Force (Nýtt afl) Guðmundur Garðar Þórarinsson 1,7910.98—0—
Independents from South Constituency (Óháðir í Suðurkjördæmi) Kristján Pálsson 8440.46—0—
Valid votes183,17298.80
Invalid votes3470.19
Blank votes1,8731.01
Total185,392100.00—63—
Female electorate105,87850.11
Male electorate105,42649.89
Female turnout93,45988.27
Male turnout91,93387.20
Electorate/Turnout211,30487.84
Source: Statistics Iceland
Last election (1999)  —  Next election (2007)
Popular vote
D
 
33.68%
S
 
30.95%
B
 
17.73%
V
 
8.81%
F
 
7.38%
Others
 
1.44%
Parliamentary seats
D
 
34.92%
S
 
31.75%
B
 
19.05%
V
 
7.94%
F
 
6.35%

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References

  1. ↑ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p962 ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p977
  3. 1 2 Haggalin, Sigga (2003-05-08). "Long-serving PM in Iceland fights to hold on to power". The Irish Times. p. 10.
  4. 1 2 Brown-Humes, Christopher (2003-05-09). "Membership of EU leaves Icelanders cold in election issues dominated by fish and taxes: Voters enjoy a higher standard of living but growing inequality may lead to a change of government". Financial Times. p. 7.
  5. ↑ "Law on Parliamentary Elections (nr.24/2000)" (in Icelandic). Althingi. 19 May 2000. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "Apportionment of Seats to Althingi, the Icelandic Parliament: Analysis of the Elections 2003 + 2007 + 2009" (PDF). The National Electoral Commission of Iceland. April 2010. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "The calculation of the allocation of parliamentary seats according to results of elections to Parliament 25th April 2009" (PDF) (in Icelandic). Landskjörstjórn (The National Electoral Commission). 18 May 2009. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  8. ↑ Wardell, Jane (2003-05-10). "Ruling party feels the heat in Icelandic vote". The Independent. p. 12.
  9. ↑ "Tight Iceland election". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . 2003-05-11. Retrieved 2009-06-28.
  10. ↑ "Icelandic leader struggles to stay in power". The Irish Times. 2003-05-12. p. 10.
  11. ↑ "Europe: Cod's own country; Iceland's election". The Economist. 2003-05-17. p. 43.
  12. ↑ "Slim majority for re-elected Prime Minister". The Independent. 2003-05-12. p. 8.
  13. ↑ Brown-Humes, Christopher (2003-05-12). "Iceland coalition keeps power". Financial Times. p. 8.
  14. 1 2 "Struggle looms for Iceland PM". BBC News Online . 2003-05-11. Retrieved 2009-06-28.
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