Constituencies of Iceland

Iceland is divided into 6 constituencies for the purpose of selecting representatives to parliament.[1]

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History

The current division was established by a 1999 constitution amendment and was an attempt to balance the weight of different districts of the country whereby voters in the rural districts have greater representation per head than voters in Reykjavík city and its suburbs.[1] The new division comprises three countryside constituencies (NW, NE and S) and three city constituencies (RN, RS and SW).[2] The imbalance of votes between city and country still exists and a provision in the election law states that if the number of votes per seat in parliament in one constituency goes below half of what it is in any other constituency, one seat shall be transferred between them.[1] This has occurred twice, in the elections in 2007 and 2013. On both occasions, a seat was transferred from the Northwest constituency to the Southwest constituency.[3]

Composition

The constituencies are the following:[2]

Data for the table below is current as of the 2017 election:

Constituency Electors Seats Electors
per seat		  %[lower-alpha 1]
Reykjavík North (Icelandic: Reykjavíkurkjördæmi norður) 46,073 11 4,188 78.3%
Reykjavík South (Icelandic: Reykjavíkurkjördæmi suður) 45,584 11 4,144 77.5%
Southwest (Icelandic: Suðvesturkjördæmi) 69,544 13 5,350 100.0%
Northwest (Icelandic: Norðvesturkjördæmi) 21,521 8 2,690 50.3%
Northeast (Icelandic: Norðausturkjördæmi) 29,620 10 2,836 55.4%
South (Icelandic: Suðurkjördæmi) 36,143 10 3,251 67.6%
Source: Statistics Iceland

Notes
  1. Electors per seat as percent of the highest number in any constituency.
  1. National Electoral Commission of Iceland 2013, p. 4
  2. National Electoral Commission of Iceland 2013, p. 5
  3. National Electoral Commission of Iceland 2013, p. 6

References

See also

Media related to Constituencies of Iceland at Wikimedia Commons

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