Sveitarstjórnarkosningar - 01.04.1998, Page 103

Sameining sveitarfélaga 1993 og 1994
101
Hafi sameiningin hlotið samþykki skulu sveitarstjómir
þær, sem hlut eiga að máli, taka ákvarðanir um ij árhagsmálefni
sveitarfélaganna, fjölda fulltrúa í nýrri sveitarstjóm, nafn
hins sameinaða sveitarfélags og önnur atriði. Akvarðanir
þessar skulu sendar ráðuneytinu sem ákveður hvenær
sameining skuli fara fram.
Séu sveitarfélög þau, sem sameinuð era, sitt í hvora
lögsagnaramdæmi skal ráðuneytið leita umsagnar dómsmála-
ráðuneytisins áður en ákvörðun um sameiningu er tekin.
110. gr.
Sameining sveitarfélaga yfir mörk kjördæma verður ekki
ákveðin nema með lögum.
112. gr.
Þegar ráðuneytið hefur staðfest sameiningu sveitarfélaga
samkvæmt framanskráðu skal það gefa út tilkynningu um
sameininguna sem birta skal í B-deild Stjómartíðinda. Þar
skal greint fr á nafhi hins nýja sveitarfélags, hvaða sveitarfélög
hafi verið sameinuð, frá hvaða tíma sameiningin taki gildi,
tölu sveitarstj ómarmanna, svo og hvort kosning skv. 113. gr.
skuli fram fara og hvenær.
F. English summary
In spring 1993 the Althingi (Parliament) passed the Munici-
pal Amalgamation Act. Regional associations ofmunicipali-
ties, of which there are eight, were each to appoint a commit-
tee for its respective part of the country. Their purpose was
to work out proposals for a revised division of the country
into municipalities, introduce proposals for municipal amal-
gamation and oversee nationwide elections on the issue. The
elections took place 20 November 1993. Statistics on the
elections are to be found in Table I and in Summaries I-IV.
Theproposals werepublished 16 September 1993. Accord-
ing to these, the number of municipalities was to be reduced
from 196 to 43. This was to be effected by merging between
2 and as many as 15 municipalities into new larger ones, while
11 municipalities would remain unchanged. In Table I, the
proposed new municipalities, for which there were no names as
yet, are denoted hy letters ofthe Icelandic alphabet. In one case
(municipalities P, R and S) existing municipalities were to be
split in the process, while in all other regions whole municipali-
ties would be combined into larger ones.
For an amalgamation to be adopted, it had to be supported
by a majority of voters in each of the municipalities con-
cemed. However, if the amalgamation was accepted by at
least two thirds of the municipalities concemed, these could
proceed with amalgamation.
The new Act further stipulated that if an amalgamation was
not supported by an absolute majority, the amalgamation
committees were entitled to make new proposals before 15
January 1994, which were to be put to a new vote.
According to the Municipal Amalgamation Act the elec-
tions were to be conducted in accordance with the Local
Govemment Act. The total number ofvoters on the electoral
roll in the 185 municipalities where voting took place was
151,255. Intheremaining 11 municipalities 34,035 qualified
for sufffage, thus making up a national electorate of 185,350,
corresponding to 70.0 pecent ofthe population.
Participation rates were very low, compared with elections
to the Althingi and local govemment elections, only 41.9
pecent. It was lowest by far in Reykjavík, 24.1 pecent, and,
generally, the participation rate was higher the smaller the
municipality. Ahsentee voting was very low, 3.3 percent.
In the nationwide elections, the proposal for municipal
amalgamation was accepted in only one instance (municipal-
ityF). Infourregions(municipalitiesH,I, S andÚ)amajority
was in favour of the proposal in at least two thirds of the
municipalities concemed. In three areas the proposal was
rejected in every municipality concemed (municipalities K,
P and X). Out of the total number of current municipalities,
the results were in favour of amalgamation in 64 and against
in 121.
As a rale, the proposals were approved in the larger
municipalities where participation rates were low but re-
jected in the smaller municipalities where participation rates
were high. Overall, 35,898 voted approvingly while 25,906
voted against. Ofcourse, these figures are not relevant for the
outcome of the elections as the results were decided in the
individual municipalities.
The results of the elections in November 1993 led to the
amalgamation of municipalities in five instances. In the
winter of 1994, elections on new proposals were conducted
in ten cases as shown in Table II. These led to further five
mergers ofmunicipalities. One ofthese was later repealed on
grounds of irregularities in the election procedures.
The ancient municipal divisions hreppar, which came into
being shortly after the settlement of Iceland in the 9* and 10th
centuries, numbered 163 at the time of the first population
census in 1703. A Royal Decree on local govemment of 4
May 1872, when the number of municipalities had grown to
173, initiated a process of dividing large municipalities into
smaller ones and separating villages from purely agricultural
areas. In 1950, there were 229 municipalities in the country,
thelastdivisionofamunicipalitytakingplacein 1948. Until
then there was not a single instance of municipal amalgation,
although there had been cases of rearrangement of existing
boundaries. Sincethe 1950sseveralmunicipaliteshaveseen
theirpopulation dwindle to such very low numbers they they
could no longer function as such and these were annexed to
the nearest municipality by the national govemment. In
1970, Althingi passed the first Municipal Amalgamation Act
and the first case of amalgamation of functioning municipali-
ties occurred in 1971, based on agreement between the two
local councils in question. In 1984, the amalgamation of two
other municipalities took place following elections on the
matter held by the two local councils in 1982. Summary V
shows the results of elections and opinion polls that had been
held by municipalities on amalgamation before the nationwide
elections of 20 November 1993. The development in the
number and population size of municipalities can be seen in
Summaries VI and VII.
The Local Govemment Act of 1986 contains a chapter on
population size and the amalgamation of municipalities.
These are the rales according to the Act:
A municipality has defmite boundaries which cannot be
changed except by law. The Ministry of Social Affairs can,
however, change municipality boundaries in connection
with municipality amalgamation or in accordance with an