Iceland 2009

[Verily]

Johanna has now taken office as Prime Minister, as of today. (I think today.) It will be interesting to see how this affects the upcoming election, as she is very popular (73% approval rating). The coalition is SDA/Left-Green, with the Progressives supporting it from the outside. Elections will still take place in May.

[Verily]

Oops, elections are apparently scheduled for 25 April, not May. My mistake.

[M]

How do these developments effect the likelihood of Iceland joining the EU?

[Hash]

How do these developments effect the likelihood of Iceland joining the EU?

http://news.scotsman.com/world/Fast-track-to-EU-could.4933200.jp

[Verily]

New poll:

Social Democrats: 27.7%
Independence: 25.8%
Left-Green: 24.1%
Progressives: ~15%
Liberals: 2.5%, well below the threshold

http://icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=16567&ew_0_a_id=320043

Easy majority for SDA/Left-Green; they wouldn't even need the Progressives.

[Hash]

Pollz!!

Social Democrats 31.7%
Independence 29.1%
Left-Greens 25.8%
Progressive 7.5%
"Liberals" 1.8%

[Verily]

The election is less than a week away now, and the most recent poll is amusing.

Social Democrats: 32.6%
Left-Greens: 26.0%
Independence: 25.7%
Progressives: 9.8%
"Citizens' Movement" (?): 3.6%
Liberals: 1.1%
Others: 1.0%
http://ruv.is/heim/frettir/frett/store64/item259722/ (warning: in Icelandic)

Independence Party in third. Again. They've been the largest party since 1947. Looks like the government will get a solid majority. The threshold is 4%, so this random "Citizens' Movement" thing might actually win seats. I have no idea what it is.

[Hash]

Election be today. Here be the latest poll.

Social Democrats: 29.8%
Left-Greens: 26.3%
Independence: 23.2%
Progressives: 12%
"Citizens' Movement" (?): 6.8% (!)
Liberals: 1.5%
Others: 0.5%

Guess I'll endorse the Left-Greens just because it would so cool to have the first government in the world with Greenies as the senior partner.

[Verily]

Citizen's Movement appears to be led by a film director named Herbert Sveinbjörnsson. I can't find much about its ideology, but my guess is that it's in the radical-democratic vein.

[platypeanArchcow]

For those who derive vague excitement from understanding words like "pólitik" in a stream of gibberish, election coverage is at http://dagskra.ruv.is/sjonvarpid/streymi/

[Hash]

For those who derive vague excitement from understanding words like "pólitik" in a stream of gibberish, election coverage is at http://dagskra.ruv.is/sjonvarpid/streymi/

Don't dis Icelandic, fool!

[platypeanArchcow]

For those who derive vague excitement from understanding words like "pólitik" in a stream of gibberish, election coverage is at http://dagskra.ruv.is/sjonvarpid/streymi/

Don't dis Icelandic, fool!

Not dissing it, just can't understand it.  It sounds pretty cool, actually.

They're displaying a pie chart that looks like this:
Pink (left-green?) - 20
Orange (socialists?) - 17
Green (prog?) - 7
Blue (indep?) - 15
Yellow (?) - 4
Not sure if this is final results or partial results or what.

[Hash]

For those who derive vague excitement from understanding words like "pólitik" in a stream of gibberish, election coverage is at http://dagskra.ruv.is/sjonvarpid/streymi/

Don't dis Icelandic, fool!

Not dissing it, just can't understand it.  It sounds pretty cool, actually.

They're displaying a pie chart that looks like this:
Pink (left-green?) - 20
Orange (socialists?) - 17
Green (prog?) - 7
Blue (indep?) - 15
Yellow (?) - 4
Not sure if this is final results or partial results or what.

It's actually a poll, results come out in 13 minutes or so.

It's actually:
pink: SDA (S)
orange: Left-Greenies (V)
green: Progressive (P)
blue: Independence (D)
yellow: that Citizen thingee

I love that old video they're showing with the guy answering the phone every second.

[Hash]

unrelated, but they just had a McDonald's ad. lol

[Hash]

Countdown!

[Hash]

RJK-Southwest constituency: Massive Independence loses (-3 seats), SDA gains only very minor gains for Left-Greens Citizens doing well (8.3%).

[platypeanArchcow]

With 19% counted in the country, the tally is 37% S, 21% D, 20% V

[Verily]

Clearly an SDA victory. It's not clear whether Independence or the Left-Greens will be in second. The Citizen's Movement definitely made it into the legislature. The Progressives didn't do too badly, either.

[platypeanArchcow]

V is winning Northeast, D in fourth

[Verily]

Looks like the SDA won every constituency except Northeast, which the Left-Greens won.

[minionofmidas]

Damn, no second place.

SDA 29.8 (+3.0) 20 (+2)
IP    23.7 (-12.9) 16 (-9)
LG   21.7 (+7.4)  14 (+5)
PP  14.8  (+3.1)   9 (+2)
CM    7.2 (+7.2)  4 (+4)
LP     2.2  (-5.1)  0 (-4)

some other party at 0.6%. Turnout 85.1%

[platypeanArchcow]

Oh, and I found something about the Citizens' Movement:
http://wdpost.com/2009/02/23/borgarahreyfingin-a-new-radical-political-party/
Apparently they want to change the electoral system from pure PR to something else?

[minionofmidas]

Has Iceland currently got fixed or open lists?

[Verily]

Oh, and I found something about the Citizens' Movement:
http://wdpost.com/2009/02/23/borgarahreyfingin-a-new-radical-political-party/
Apparently they want to change the electoral system from pure PR to something else?

Any idea on their views on the EU? The SDA and Progressives are in favor of membership while Independence and the Left-Greens are opposed, so the Citizen's Movement holds the balance on the issue.

[Hash]

Oh, and I found something about the Citizens' Movement:
http://wdpost.com/2009/02/23/borgarahreyfingin-a-new-radical-political-party/
Apparently they want to change the electoral system from pure PR to something else?

Any idea on their views on the EU? The SDA and Progressives are in favor of membership while Independence and the Left-Greens are opposed, so the Citizen's Movement holds the balance on the issue.

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