Alþingiskosningar - 01.03.2002, Page 31

Alþingiskosningar 1999
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declares his or her Icelandic citizenship. Upon approval,
Statistics Iceland informs the applicant and the municipality
concerned. 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 where the
person is registered as domiciled according to the National
Register of Persons 3 weeks prior to election day. This rule
was stipulated in the 1995 amendment to the General Elections
Act. In the 1991 elections, this time reference was set at 7
weeks. Before 1991, the electoral roil had been 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
preliminary rolls provided by Statistics Iceland. Changes in
the final electoral roll are caused by death or inclusion or
deletion decided by the local government in question.
Summary 4 compares the final electoral rolls with the
preliminary rolls and shows the proportion of eligible voters
domiciled abroad on the preliminary rolls, which was 4.0%
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 409
in the 1999 election. Table 1 shows the number of eligible
voters in the constituencies and municipal ities. It also shows
figures for polling stations in Reykjavík. Table 2 shows the
number of voters domiciled in Iceland and abroad.
3. Participation in elections
In the general elections of 1999, 169,424 persons cast their
vote, corresponding to 84.1% of the voters on the electoral
roll. This is the lowest participation rate in general elections
since 1942. Thehighestparticipationrateingeneralelections
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 1999, participation by males was 83.8% and
84.4% by females. This is the second time that participation
is greater among women than men in general elections,
although this has happened on three other occasions before,
in the presidential elections of 1980. 1988 and 1996.
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. Table 2 shows the number of votes
cast and participation of voters with domicile in Iceland and
abroad. Summary 6 shows participation rates, according to
sex in each constituency. In fíve ofthe constituencies women’s
participation was greater than that ofmen. Summary 7 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
voteatadifferentpollingstation(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
representatives 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
consulates 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
commissioners 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 ofold age or ill health. The same provisions
were introduced before the general election of 1923, but
were abolished in 1924 for fear of misuse. Since the 1991
amendment of the General Elections Act, the official
conducting 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 submitted.
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 it is
now sufficient for absentee votes to reach any polling station
in the constituency before closing time. Such votes shall be
forwarded separately to the constituency electoral committee.
In the general elections of 1999, 1,014 votes were received
in this way.