REYKJAVIK (AFP) – Icelanders voted after the collapse of a fraught coalition prompted snap legislative elections, where early results showed the Social Democrats leading the ruling Independence Party.
With the ballots of more than a quarter of eligible voters counted, the Social Democratic Alliance – led by Kristrun Frostadottir – were ahead with 22.8 per cent of the vote, according to broadcaster RUV.
If the results hold, the party would more than double the support it saw in the last election in 2021 – when it got 9.9 per cent.
“There will be changes to the governance of the country. That is clear,” Frostadottir told an election party while cautioning that votes were still being counted.
Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson cast his vote just after 10.30am at a polling station set up in the Myrin sports centre in a southern suburb of Reykjavik.
His Independence Party was trailing the Social Democrats with 21.9 per cent.
In third place was the Liberal Reform Party with 14 per cent.
Benediktsson’s three-party, left-right coalition resigned in October.
The Independence Party, the Left-Green Movement and the centre-right Progressive Party were divided on a range of issues but broke down over the handling of migrants and asylum seekers.
But in a country battling inflation and high interest rates where some 268,000 people are eligible to vote, the economy, housing and healthcare have been foremost on voters’ minds.
