The Icelandic early legislative elections are taking place normally this Saturday, although the weather alert due to a snow storm in parts of the country maintains the threat of possible delays in voting and counting.
The authorities have mobilized workers to clear the roads of snow and keep them open in the south and east, while the electoral boards prepare in case it is necessary to modify the plans for the recount, public television RÚV reported.
The slightly more than 268,000 Icelandic voters called to the polls from 09:00 to 22:00 GMT, on an election day in which the forecasts point to a victory for the social democratic opposition and a change of government, and in which it is expected that the count does not end until Sunday morning.
The Social Democratic Alliance leads in the polls with just over 20% and several points ahead of the also opposition Reforma (liberal), while the conservative Independence Party of Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson appears as the third force with around 15%. %.
Five other political forces would overcome the minimum barrier of 5% to enter the Alþingi (Parliament), but not the Green Left Movement, one of the members of the outgoing government coalition and whose former leader, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, served as head of Government from 2017 until last April.
The forecasts point to a change of government
If the poll forecasts are confirmed, it would be the second time since Iceland separated from Denmark in 1944 that the Independence Party has lost a general election.
The other occasion was in 2009, in the midst of the serious economic crisis that affected the country, and the winners were the social democrats, who from 2013 until now have chained one electoral failure after another.
If what the polls indicate is confirmed, the social democrats and the liberals of Refoma would need at least one more party to reach the 32 seats that mark the absolute majority.
Both forces are the only ones clearly in favor of joining the European Union (EU), although only the liberals have openly defended holding a referendum.
Iceland, a country traditionally skeptical of Brussels, applied to join the EU in 2009, after suffering the worst economic crisis in its recent history and with a government led by social democracy, but withdrew six years later coinciding with the change in the can.
The “no” supporters have historically been the majority, but in recent months polls suggest that the situation has reversed.
Breakup of the coalition between three parties
This Saturday’s elections come almost a year before the end of the legislature and culminate a crisis that began in April, when Katrín Jakobsdóttir announced her resignation to run in the presidential elections in June, in which she lost against the current president, the businesswoman Halla Tómasdóttir.
The seemingly unnatural government coalition of red-green, conservatives and the liberals of the Progressive Party born after the complicated post-electoral panorama of 2017 maintained power four years later, with more support, but internal tensions increased.
The departure of Katrín Jakobsdóttir caused Bjarni Benediktsson, who had already been prime minister for a few months in 2017, to assume the head of Government, but the differences between the partners on immigration issues and energy policy made the red-greens announce their departure from the coalition last month, which ended up causing the elections to be brought forward.
The distance between the political forces and the poor forecasts of the polls for the three parties – especially for the red-green ones, which could be left out of Parliament – make it unlikely that the ruling coalition could be reissued after the elections.
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