Alþingiskosningar - 01.09.1995, Page 39

Alþingiskosningar 1995
37
Iceland for being entered on the electoral roll. A special
application form has to be used, stating full name and identity
number, date of emigration, domicile abroad and last domi-
cile in Iceland. The application form assumes that the
applicant declares his or her Icelandic citizenship. Upon
approval, Statistics Iceland informs the applicant and the
municipality concemed. The decision is valid for four years
counting from 1 December following the date of application.
According to the General Elections Act each person is to
be entered on an electoral roll in the municipality in which the
person is registered as domiciled according to the National
Register of Persons 3 weeks prior to election day. This is a
new mle stipulated in the 1995 amendment to the General
Elections Act. In the 1991 elections, this time reference was
set at 7 weeks. Before that, the electoral roll was based on
people's domicile on 1 December prior to the election day.
In addition to the reasons suggested above, the increase in
the proportion of eligible voters since 1968 can also be
explained by changes in the domicile registration of students
abroad. According to the Domicile Act, students abroad are
entitled to keep their domicile in the municipality where they
last resided in Iceland. In 1969 a Nordic convention on
population registration entered into force, stipulating among
other things that the registration of immigration by one
country automatically causes registration of emigration and
loss of domicile in the other. As Icelandic students in the
Nordic countries no longer kept their domicile in Iceland,
special measures were taken to include them in the electoral
rolls. As previously stated, the right to vote has been
extended since 1987 to all otherwise eligible persons who
have emigrated from Iceland during a specified number of
years.
Local govemments base their final electoral rolls on pre-
liminary rolls provided by Statistics Iceland. Changes ef-
fected in the final electoral roll are caused by death or
inclusion or deletion decided by the local govemment in
question. Summary 3 compares the final electoral rolls with
the preliminary rolls and shows the proportion of eligible
voters domiciled abroad on the preliminary rolls, which was
3.3% for the whole country.
The number of voters on the electoral roll has been more
or less equally divided between men and women in elections
for the past two decades. Women outnumbered men by 131
in the 1995 election. Table 1 shows the number of eligible
voters in the constituencies and municipalities. It also shows
figures for polling stations in Reykjavík.
3. Participation in elections
In the general elections of 1995, 167,751 persons cast their
vote, corresponding to 87.4% of the voters on the electoral
roll. This is the lowest participation rate in general elections
since 1946. The highest participation rate in general elec-
tions was in 1956,92.1%. In the referendum held in 1944 on
the abrogation of the Danish-Icelandic Union Treaty of 1918
and on the Constitution of the Republic the participation rate
was 98.4%.
Summary 2 shows participation rates in elections since
1874, both total figures and according to sex. In the general
elections of 1995, participation by males was 87.3% and
87.5% by females. This is the first time that participation is
greater among women than men in general elections although
this has happened on two occasions before, in the presiden-
tial elections of 1980 and 1988.
Table 1 shows the number of votes cast and participation
in each municipality. Voters and votes are counted in the area
of registration, also in the case of persons who voted at
another polling station. Summary 5 shows participation
rates, according to sex in each constituency. In six of the
constituencies women’ s participation was greater than that of
men. Summary 6 shows the number of municipalities in each
constituency by degree of participation.
4. Absentee votes
A voter who expects that he or she will not be able to attend
the election in his polling station on election day can cast an
absentee vote.
The conditions for the right to absentee voting have been
eased since it was first authorized in the general election of
1916. Then the right was limited to seamen and others who
expected to be absent from their home municipality on
election day and would not be able to exercise the right to vote
at a different polling station (cf. chapter5). In 1974 this right
was extended to those who were expected to be in hospital
and to pregnant women who might not be able to vote on
election day. In 1983 the right was extended to those who for
religious reasons could not vote on election day. As from
1987, a reason for absentee voting need not be stated.
Absentee voting can take place at district commissioner
offices, at the office or home of district commissioner repre-
sentatives in each municipality and on board an Icelandic
ship, provided the captain has received the necessary papers
and the voter is a registered crew member. Overseas absentee
voting can take place at Icelandic embassies, permanent
missions and consulates general, as well as honorary consu-
lates as decided by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs before
each election. The rules on places for absentee voting were
eased in 1974, so that now it can be conducted by honorary
consuls who do not speak Icelandic, and district commission-
ers may conduct absentee voting for patients and inmates at
hospitals and homes for the aged. In 1991 this rule was
extended to prison inmates.
In the referenda of 1918 and 1944 on the Union Treaty and
the Constitution, voters were allowed to cast absentee votes
at home in case of old age or ill health. The same provisions
were introduced before the general election of 1923, but
abolished in 1924 for fear of misuse. Since the 1991
amendment of the General Elections Act, the official con-
ducting absentee voting can do this at a private home in case
of persons otherwise unable to cast their vote because of
disease, handicap or childbirth. Home absentee voting must
be requested not less than a week before election day and a
medical certification of the need must be provided.
According to earlier electoral legislation, absentee votes
had to be received by the polling station where the voter was
registered, before it closed on election day. This was changed
in the General Elections Act of 1959 to the effect that now it
is sufficient for absentee votes to reach any polling station in
the constituency before closing time. Such votes shall be