Faroese parliamentary election, 2008

Faroese general election, 2008

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Party Leader % Seats ± Republic Høgni Hoydal 23.3% 8 0 Union Kaj Leo Johannesen 21.0% 7 0 People's Jørgen Niclasen 20.1% 7 0 Social Democratic Jóannes Eidesgaard 19.3% 6 -1 Centre Jenis av Rana 8.4% 3 +1 Self-Government Kári P. Højgaard 7.2% 2 +1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

Prime Minister before Prime Minister Jóannes Eidesgaard Social Democratic Jóannes Eidesgaard Social Democratic

General elections were held in the Faroe Islands on 19 January 2008, the latest possible date. The Self-Government Party and the Centre Party gained a seat each while the Social Democratic Party lost a seat. The number of women went from three to seven.

It had been considered to amend the election law to hold the election two weeks later to pass a number of important bills before the election, but in the end the negotiations on this failed and the election was called on 2007-12-07. Prior to this election, the electoral system was changed in 2007 from a constituency-based d'Hondt proportional representation (with seven multi-member constituencies), which had some elements of mixed member proportional voting, to a nationwide d'Hondt based proportional system to reduce disproportionality.

Prior to the election, the Social Democratic Party formed a centrist unionist government with the People's Party and the Union Party. After the elections, four days of negotiations saw a centre-left separatist government emerge; while the Social Democratic Party retained the PM's post, the strongly pro-independence Republic got the majority of ministerial posts (including the newly created post of foreign minister). The Centre Party also participated in the new government. Among the coalition agreement points was a plan to draft a constitution for the Faroe Islands, which would be approved in a referendum to be held in 2010.

The coalition broke up in mid-2008, however, and a government consisting of the parties governing before the 2008 election was sworn in on 26 September 2008, with Kaj Leo Johannesen as PM instead.