Icelandic parliamentary election, 2009

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25 April 2009

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All 63 seats to the Althing
32 seats were needed for a majority

Turnout

85.1%

	First party	Second party

Leader	Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir	Bjarni Benediktsson
Party	Social Democratic	Independence
Leader since	28 March 2009	29 March 2009
Last election	18 seats, 26.8%	25 seats, 36.6%
Seats won	20 / 63	16 / 63
Seat change	2	9
Popular vote	55,758	44,369
Percentage	29.8%	23.7%
Swing	3.0%	12.9%

	Third party	Fourth party

Leader	Steingrímur J. Sigfússon	Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson
Party	Left-Green	Progressive
Leader since	6 February 1999	18 January 2009
Last election	9 seats, 14.3%	7 seats, 11.7%
Seats won	14 / 63	9 / 63
Seat change	5	2
Popular vote	40,580	27,699
Percentage	21.7%	14.8%
Swing	7.4%	3.1%

Prime Minister before election

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
Social Democratic

Elected Prime Minister

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
Social Democratic

A parliamentary election was held in Iceland on 25 April 2009 following strong pressure from the public as a result of the Icelandic financial crisis. The Social Democratic Alliance and the Left-Green Movement, which formed the outgoing coalition government under Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, both made gains and formed an overall majority of seats in the Althing (Iceland's parliament). The Progressive Party also made gains, and the new Citizens' Movement, formed after the January 2009 protests, gained four seats. The big loser was the Independence Party, which had been in power for 18 years until January 2009: it lost a third of its support and nine seats in the Althing.

There had been weekly protests in front of the Althing since the collapse of Iceland's three commercial banks in October 2008. These protests intensified with the return of the Althing from Christmas recess on 20 January 2009. Three days later, Prime Minister Geir Haarde of the Independence Party announced that he was withdrawing from politics for health reasons (he had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer), and promised early elections for 9 May. However, the Independence Party wished to retain the Prime Minister's post, which proved unacceptable to their coalition partners the Social Democratic Alliance: the government collapsed on 26 January 2009.

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Wikipedia