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96. ÁRGANGUR WINNIPEG, FÖSTUDAGUR 25. JÚNÍ 1982 NÚMER 26
Municipal Elections:
Big Independence Party gains
Regained control of Reykjavík from Leftist Coalition
The outgoing mayor of Reykjavík, Egill Skúli Ingibergsson (left),
congratulating his successor, Davíð Oddsson.
The Independence Party (IP), the
strongest element in Icelandic
politics for more than half a cen-
tury, scored dramatic victories in
the municipal elections on last May
22. The IP handily regained a ma-
jority on the Reykjavík city council,
an IP stronghold for decades prior to
a 1978 upset — chalking up an im-
pressive 52.5% of the ballots cast,
enough to win 12 seats out of 21.
The direct losers in the capital
were the leftist People's Alliance
(PA), with 4 seats, and the Social
Democrats (SD), with just 1. By con-
trast, the centrist Progressive Party,
which had shared power with the
PA and the SD on the city council
since the spring of 1978, held its
own, increasing its vote percentage
by a slight margin but winning 2
seats.
Since early 1980, the Progressives
and the People's Alliance have con-
stituted the parliamentary backbone
of Gunnar Thoroddsen's govern-
ment. The Prime Minister, 71, was
an IP deputy chairman until recent-
ly, but the three-element coalition
led by him is an anathema to nearly
all IP members of Althing (parlia-
ment) as also to all Social
Democratic legislators.
Unsurprisingly, the election
results fuelled speculation over the
government’s future, particularly as
at least one People's Alliance can-
didate in Reykjavík had asserted
that an Independence Party victory
would make IP chairman Geir
Hallgrímsson the next Premier.
In conversations with newsmen
following the elections,
Hallgrímsson left no doubt that such
a role appealed to him, and he urged
that Althing be promptly dissolved,
but Prime Minister Thoroddsen
gave no signs of interest in the idea.
As was a foregone conclusion,
Davíd Oddsson was named mayor
of Reykjavík, replacing Egill Skúli
Ingibergsson, an engineer who was
not a member of the outgoing city
council. Albert Gudmundsson, a
veteran IP politician took over as
chairman of the body.
Mayor elect Davíd Oddsson com-
mented that the new council's in-
itial task would be to assess the
financial circumstances of the city.
"They are in a very bad state," he
said. "There is not enough money
on hand to pay agreed-on wage ad-
justments until year's end. Follow-
ing that, we'll turn our attention to
city-planning questions, abandoning
the idea of housing developments at
Raudavatn."
He was referring to an area some
distance upland from a small bay at
the eastern end of Reykjavík.
Associated with a small lake called
Raudavatn, the site was chosen for
future urban development by the
former council majority — in
preference to an earlier plan ad-
vocated by the Independence Party.
According to a recent geological
study, the grey-basalt bedrock at
Raudavatn is crossed by a swarm of
fissures — a finding that figured pro-
minently in Oddsson's campaign-
ing.
Oddsson also reaffirmed the IP
pledge that the city council would
remain 21-strong for just this term.
The past majority was responsible
for increasing the body's size from
15 to 21.
The former chairman of the Reyk-
javík city council, Sigurjón
Pétursson (People's Alliance),
described the recent municipal elec-
tions this way: ''They were
characterized by a strong swing to
the right and major victories of the
Independence Party, though this
seemed less pronounced in
Reykjavík than in many other
places."
A women's slate without political
endorsement won two seats in the
capital — a turn of events many
analysts believed was largely at the
expense of the People's Alliance. A
couple of candidates from an all-
female list were also elected in
Akureyri, a north-coast town that is
the biggest urban community in
Iceland outside the Reykjavík area;
although they had vowed to stay
non-aligned, they faced the choice
of forming a majority with either
the Independence Party or what re-
mained of the coalition that held the
reins for the past eight years.
In the Westman Islands, an im-
portant fishing port on Heimaey, off
Iceland's south coast, the In-
dependence Party won an ample
council majority, after having
played a second fiddle for twelve
years. Commented Sigurgeir
Ólafsson, the top man on the IP slate
in town, a couple of days after the
election: "I have hardly come back
down to earth yet. This was far
more than we expected."
Predictably, many analysts ex-
amined the election returns in the
context of what happened in 1978,
when the Independence Party lost
its longstanding majority in Reyk-
javík, while both the IP and the Pro-
gressives suffered dramatic set-
backs nationally. That outcome, ac-
cording to a foreign sociologist, was
Continued on page 2
Gordon Thorvaldson appointed
G.H. (Gord) Thorvaldson was ap-
pointed to the new position of
Director, Cargo Revenue Accoun-
ting.
Gord began his career in Win-
nipeg Accounting in 1954 and held
several accounting positions before
moving to Montreal headquarters in
1970. Gord is a Registered Industrial
Accountant.
He was Manager, Cargo Forecasts
prior to his return to Winnipeg in
1977. Since that time, he has been
Manager, Passenger Accounting;
Manager, Industry Accounting Af-
fairs and most recently, Manager,
Cargo Revenue Accounting.
Gord has participated extensively
in the activities of the Industry
Travel Agency Reporting and
Remittance Administration commit-
tees, as a member for both the Inter-
national Air Transport Association
and the Air Traffic Conference,
Bank Settlement Plans and as Chair-
man of the steering panel for the
Bank Settlement Plan, Canada.