Alþingiskosningar - 01.09.1995, Blaðsíða 40

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Alþingiskosningar 1995
forwarded separately to the constituency electoral commit-
tee. In the general elections of 1995, 1,317 votes were
received in this way.
Table 1 shows the number of absentee votes cast by voters
registered in each municipality. The total numberof absentee
votes was 14,448, or 8.6% of the total number of votes cast.
Summary 7 shows this ratio as from 1916.
In 1995 6,167 absentee votes, or 42.7% of the total, were
cast by women. Summary 7 shows that there were high
proportions of absentee voting among women in 1918,1923
and 1944. This was due to voting at home only.
Summary 5 compares absentee voting between constituen-
cies, and Summary 8 shows the absolute number of absentee
votes by constituency and sex, including votes sent directly
to the constituency electoral committee.
Summary 9 shows the number of absentee votes cast
within Iceland by place of absentee voting. About 90% were
cast at a regular office while less than 1 % were cast at home.
Note should be taken that the total of this Summary does not
correspond to the number of valid absentee votes shown
elsewhere in this report, as it excludes voting abroad or
aboard Icelandic ships and includes votes that may never
have been received by the election committee concerned or
may have been rendered invalid if the voter also voted at his
or her polling station on election day.
J. Voting on election day at a polling station other than that
of registration
A voter is entitled to vote at any polling station in his
constituency, provided he presents a certificate, issued by the
electoral committee of his polling station, to the electoral
committee of the polling station where he or she intends to
vote with a statement saying that he or she is registered as a
voter and has relinquished his or her right to vote there. This
option became effective in the 1916 general elections and
was exercised then by 2.9% of those who voted. At that time
and until the summer election of 1959, these were to some
extent absentee votes which could not reach the polling
station of registration before closing time. In later elections
the use of this right has diminished to very small percentages.
In the general elections of 1995, a total of 14 persons voted
in a different municipality within their constituency. A total
of 159 persons exercised the right to vote at a different polling
station within their home municipality. Of these, 108 voted
at a polling station in Reykjavík with special facilities for
handicapped voters.
Summary 8 shows the number of votes cast in a different
polling station in the 1995 general elections ineachconstitu-
ency, by sex, and Summary 5 shows them as a proportion of
the total number of votes.
6. Candidate lists and candidates
In the 1995 general elections there were 56 candidate lists
with 843 candidates, 418 men and 425 women. This is the
first time that women outnumber men on the lists. The share
of women on candidate lists has increased from 8% in 1959
to 50.4% in 1995.
All Icelandic citizens who have the right to vote and are of
unblemished character are eligible for election to the Althingi
except judges of the Supreme Court.
Candidate lists have to be supported by a number of
signatures of eligible voters deri ved from the number of seats
for each consituency multiplied by a minimum of 20 and a
maximum of 30.
Summary 10 shows the number of men and women on
candidate lists by constituency and political organizations,
both for the whole list and for the first three seats on the list.
Summary 11 shows the number of men and women on all
candidate lists. Summary 12 shows the distribution of candi-
dates by sex and Summary 13 shows the age distribution of
candidates by political organizations.
Table 2 gives the name, occupation and domicile of every
candidate in the 1995 general elections. Summaries 14-17
show a classification of candidates by broad groupings of
employment, occupation and education levels, including a
comparison with the results of the labour force survey
conducted in April 1995.
7. Outcome of the elections
Table 3 shows the election results by constituency and
political organization. The total number of valid votes was
165,043, while there were 2,335 blank and 373 void ballots.
Summary 18 shows the votes received by political organi-
zation, their share in the votes and members returned since
1916, when candidates to the Althingi began forming politi-
cal parties. Before that time members of the Althingi had
collaborated in political groups within the Althingi. The
election results of organizations that never returned a mem-
ber and of non-party candidates are grouped together.
Summary 5 shows the proportion of blank and void ballots
in each constituency, and Summary 19 shows their number
and proportion in each election since 1908, when the secret
ballot was introduced.
8. Allocation ofseats in the Althingi.
When all the election results have been received by the
National Elections Board it meets to allocate seats in the
Althingi to the candidate lists. The law prescribes that the
number of members representing political organizations in
the Althingi shall as far as possible correspond to the votes
they received. For this purpose, up to one-fourth of the total
number of seats of each constituency, may be allocated on the
basis of national election results. The following articles (and
articles listed in chapter 9) in the General Elections Act
prescribe the procedure. The contents of Article 5 referred to
were given in Chapter 1.
Article 111 decides the allocation of seats based on con-
stituency results:
1. The number of valid votes in each constituency is
divided by the number of seats. The integer of the result
is referred to as allocation quota.
2. The first seat is allocated to the candidate list with the
highest number of votes. The allocation quota is then
subtracted from the number of votes. The second seat
goes to the list which now has the highest vote index, and
so on. In each case the vote index means the total
number of votes less the product of the allocation quota
and the number of seats already allocated to the list.
3. Allocation in this manner shall apply to three quarters of
the total number of seats to be allocated in each constitu-