Forsetakjör - 01.11.1997, Blaðsíða 26

24
Forsetakjör 1996
Nordic convention on population registration entered into
force, stipulating among other things that the registration of
immigration by one Nordic country automatically causes
registration of emigration and loss of domicile in the other.
As this provision meant that Icelandic students in the Nordic
countries no longer kept their domicile in Iceland, special
measures were taken to include them in the electoral rolls.
This arrangement lasted until 1987 when the right to vote was
extended, as already described, to all persons who emigrated
from Iceland during a specified number of years prior to an
election.
According to the General Elections Act, each person is to
be entered on an electoral roll in the municipality in which he
or she is domiciled according to the National Register of
Persons 3 weeks prior to election day. This is a new rule
enacted in the 1995 amendment to the General Elections Act.
In the 1991 general election, this reference time was set at 7
weeks. Before that, the electoral roll was based on domicile
on 1 December prior to the election day.
Local govemments base their final electoral rolls on pre-
liminary rolls provided by Statistics Iceland. Changes are
effected in the final electoral roll in the event of the death of
a voter, a local govemment decision to include those who
have gained Icelandic citizenship in the interim or delete
those who have lost it, or for some other legitimate reason.
Summary 3 shows the number of voters on the electoral
roll and according to the preliminary rolls. 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 117 in the 1996
presidential election. Some 39.4% of the total voters on the
electoral roll in 1996 were not old enough to vote in the
presidential election of 1980, and those who reached voting
age after the presidential election of 1988 accounted for
17.2% of the total. The highest percentage of voters domi-
ciled abroad was in the constituency of Reykjavík, 5.0% of all
voters on the electoral roll there. Summary 4 shows the
distribution of voters domiciled abroad by age as well as by
country of domicile.
Table 1 (pp. 28-32) shows the number of voters, by sex, in
the constituencies and municipalities, and at each polling
station in municipalities with more than one polling station.
Table 2 (pp. 33-36) shows the number of voters domiciled in
the municipality concemed or abroad.
3. Participation in the election
In the presidential election of 1996, 167,334 persons cast
their vote, corresponding to 85.9% of the voters on the
electoral roll. This is a higher participation rate than in the
presidential elections of 1952 and 1988 but lower than in
those of 1968 and 1980. In general elections, the participa-
tion rate has not been this low since 1942. The highest
participation rate in a general election was in 1956, at 92.1%.
In the referendum held in 1944, on the abrogation of the
Danish-Icelandic Union Treaty of 1918 and on the Constitu-
tion of the Republic, the participation rate was 98.4%.
Summary 1 shows participation rates in elections since
1874, both total figures and separately for men and women.
In the presidential election of 1996, participation by men was
84.1% and by women 87.7%. The general election of 1995
was the first parliamentary election where the participation
rate was higher among women than men, although this had
occurred previously in presidential elections, in 1980 and
1988.
Table 1 shows the number of votes cast and participation
rates in each municipality. Voters and votes are counted in
the area of registration, even in the case of persons who voted
at another polling station. Table 2 shows participation rates
of voters domiciled respectively in Iceland and abroad. The
participation rates of voters domiciled in Iceland was 88.6%
compared with 22.0% of those domiciled abroad.
Summary 5 shows participation rates according to sex in
each constituency. In all eight constituencies, women’s par-
ticipation was greater than that of men. Summary 6 shows the
number of municipalities in each constituency by degree of
participation.
4. Voting at polling stations
Local governments (towns since 1908 and other municipali-
ties since 1927) are free to divide the municipality into
polling stations. This has been done in several places, as can
be seen in Table 1. Summary 7 shows the number of polling
stations and polling wards in each constituency in the 1996
election. Summary 8 includes the number of polling wards
since 1931.
Voters are entitled to vote at any polling station in their
constituencies, provided they present a document, issued by
the electoral committee of their polling station, to the elec-
toral committee of the polling station where they intend to
vote, stating that they are registered as voters and have
relinquished the right to vote there. This option went into
effect in the 1916 general election and was exercised then by
2.9% of those who voted. At that time and until the summer
election of 1959, these were partly absentee votes that 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 presidential election of 1996,
a total of 7 persons cast their votes in a municipality other
than that in which they were registered. A total of 102 persons
exercised the right to vote at a different polling station within
their home municipality.
Summary 9 shows the number of votes cast at a polling
station other than that of registration in the 1996 presidential
election in each constituency, by sex, and Summary 5 shows
these as a proportion of the total number of votes.
5. Absentee voting
A voter who expects to be unable to attend the election in his
or her 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. At that time, 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 another polling station (cf. chapter 4). 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 further extended to those
who for religious reasons could not vote on election day. As
from 1987, no reason needs to be given for absentee voting.