Iceland will have a male-majority parliament after all, election recount shows By Reuters

By Stine Jacobsen and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Iceland appeared to have elected a woman-majority parliament however a recount of votes on Sunday confirmed there’ll nonetheless be extra males than girls within the chamber, state broadcaster RUV reported.

Thirty girls have been elected to the 63-seat parliament in Saturday’s election, up from 24 within the earlier vote. Earlier outcomes earlier than the recount late on Sunday had proven 33 girls have been elected.

The Nationwide Electoral Fee has not revealed the outcomes on its web site and couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.

Solely three international locations – Rwanda, Cuba and Nicaragua – have extra girls than males in parliament, whereas Mexico and the United Arab Emirates have a 50/50 break up, in keeping with information from the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

In Europe, Sweden and Finland have 47% and 46% girls’s illustration in parliament, respectively.

Iceland, a North Atlantic island of 371,000 folks, was ranked essentially the most gender-equal nation on this planet for the twelfth 12 months operating in a World Financial Discussion board (WEF) report launched in March.

Opinion polls had forecast the governing coalition would fall wanting a majority, however a surge in assist for the centre-right Progressive (NYSE:) Occasion, which received 5 extra seats than in 2017, pushed the coalition’s complete depend to 37 seats, in keeping with RUV.

Members of the present authorities, which consists of Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir’s Left-Inexperienced Motion, the conservative Independence Occasion and the Progressive Occasion, stated earlier than the election they might negotiate continued cooperation in the event that they held their majority.

President Gudni Johannesson stated he wouldn’t hand a mandate to kind a brand new authorities to any occasion however would await coalition talks among the many three events.

The Independence Occasion remained the largest in parliament with 16 seats, unchanged from the final election. Occasion chief and former Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson stated he was optimistic the three events might kind a coalition and he wouldn’t demand that he lead a brand new authorities, RUV reported.

The Left-Inexperienced Motion bought eight seats, down from 11 within the 2017 election, though two parliamentarians left the occasion shortly after the final election.