Hagskýrslur um kosningar - 01.01.1991, Page 6

Preface
After its foundation in 1914 the Statistical Bureau of Iceland
became responsible for compiling and publishing reports on
elections in the country. The first report in 1914 covered
general elections in the period 1908-1914 but two election
reports covering the period 1874-1911 had already been
published in 1882 and 1912. From the beginning the Bureau
has published its reports on general elections to the Althing,
presidential elections and referenda in the series Statistics of
Iceland, altogether 31 reports including the present issue.
Starting in 1930, the Bureau has also compiled reports on
local government elections. These appeared in the Bureau’s
Monthly Statistics until the Bureau started to publish them
separately in the Statistics oflceland series, the first covering
the elections in 1990.
In 1988, the Statistical Bureau published in two volumes
all reports that had been compiled on general elections, local
government elections, presidential elections and referenda in
the period 1874-1987, in all 43 reports. Since then reports
have been issued on the presidential elections in 1988, local
government elections in 1990 and the present report on the
•general elections in 1991. As a point of interest it can be
mentioned that 15 general elections have taken place during
the period of almost 47 years since the foundation of the
Icelandic Republic in 1944 to the general elections of 1991.
The first of these took place in 1946, which means that
general elections have on the average been held at an interval
of 3 years and 2 months.
The reports on general elections have changed consider-
ably in the course of time, mainly owing to changes in
election laws and in constituencies. As of the report on the
1987 general elections, the reporting changed markedly as a
result of constitutional amendments in 1984 and amend-
ments to the General Elections Act in 1984 and 1987. The
main changes in the report were caused by complicated rules
for allocation of seats that were first applied in 1987 and
necessitated a thorough reporting on how seats are allocated
and final results are rendered. This has also been done in the
present report, which is quite similar in its presentation to the
1987 report.
The main sources on which the present report is based are
the following:
1. Statistics on voters on the electoral roll and votes cast
are based on reports that local election boards submit to
the Statistical Bureau.
2. Information on candidate lists and candidates is based
on advertisements by constituency election boards.
3. Information on election results and allocation of seats
is based on reports submitted by constituency election
boards to the national election board and on reports
submitted by the latter to the Statistical Bureau. The
actual presentation of the tables is the work of the
Bureau.
For the Statistical Bureau, Guðni Baldursson has been in
charge of the data collection, processing and compiling of
this report while the lay-out has been carried out by Sigurborg
Steingrímsdóttir.
The Statistical Bureau of Iceland in December 1993
Hallgrímur Snorrason