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Sunday, October 30, 2016

2016 Iceland Parliament Election Saturday October 29,2016

Parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on Saturday October 29,2016.

They were due to be held on or before April 27,2017, but following the 2016 Icelandic Anti Government Protests , the ruling coalition announced that early elections would be held "in autumn"

Iceland's anti-establishment Pirate Party gained momentum but failed to win a majority in Saturday's snap election, prompted by the the Panama Papers scandal, which rattled the incumbent coalition.(The election was triggered after the Panama Papers revealed that 600 Icelanders including cabinet ministers, bankers and business leaders had holdings stashed away in offshore accounts.)

Gaining up to nine out of the 63 seats in the Icelandic parliament, the Althingi, the Pirates became the third largest party in the island nation, four years after it was founded in 2012.

The Pirate Party, whose headquarters is onboard a boat anchored in the port of Reykjavik, intends to reinvigorate democracy, redistribute income from natural resources, health refinance and the fight against corruption.

Preliminary figures came after the polls closed at 10:00 pm (2200 GMT) and were greeted with applause by activists and "pirates" inside a bar in Reykjavik, crowded with tourists and foreign press.

The Pirates sealed a pre-coalition agreement with three other left-centre parties and together they garnered 28 seats of the 32 required for an absolute majority in the Icelandic parliament.

According to preliminary results, the Left-Green movement would garner 10 mandates, the Social Democrats four mandates and the centre Bright Future would gain five mandates.

The centre-right Progressive Party gained seven mandates while the Independence Party garnered 21 seats, according to the early projections.

The centre Regeneration Party, which could be the kingmakers in the election, garnered seven seats in the Icelandic parliament.


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