A bit baffled

Well, the election here in Iceland is scheduled for April 25th, and I must confess my genuine lack of understanding of this process. That Iceland has 5 political parties I think I get, also that more might be formed before the election. That there are 4 districts for the country side and several more (not sure how many) for the heavily populated area between Mosfellsbaer and Keflavik (including most importantly the capital!) I can also grasp, even if I'm fuzzy on the details. It seems some sort of an attempt to balance the needs of representation by number with representation by area. But then my understanding peters out. There is something about each party having a list of candidates for each district, and there are people in the first seat, second seat, and third seat of that list. At first I thought this meant they were competing with each other, but that is not the case. So I find myself wondering if basically a voter here in Iceland chooses a political party to vote for, and not an individual candidate, and that their vote therefore goes to the three people on the list for that party. I cannot tell you how strange that idea seems to me, so much so that I have a feeling I must be wrong. I hope one of my readers will enlighten me. 

Comments

Iris said…
Even so I gave a presentation about Icelandic elections in a Scandinavian Politics undergrad class one, I don't remember the first thing about it.
However, in Germany you ALWAYS vote for the party (not the chancellor candidate). The names listed for the second cross you make is people you want to see in the parliament. I hope someone will be able to explain the Icelandic system to you. But I find it a LOT stranger to vote for a person who is supposed to run the country. After all I'm interested in the platform of the party that is running the country.A chancellor is always bound by his/her party's platform. I find that less - royal. The president always struck me as a fancy version of a monarchy.
February 16, 2009 at 10:43 PM
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