2012 Icelandic presidential election

2012 Icelandic presidential election

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Candidate Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson Thóra Arnórsdóttir Ari Trausti Guðmundsson Popular vote 84,036 52,795 13,762 Percentage 52.78% 33.16% 8.64%

President before election Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson Elected President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson

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Presidential elections were held in Iceland on 30 June 2012.^[1] The result was a victory for the incumbent Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who defeated his nearest rival Thóra Arnórsdóttir by nearly 20% of the vote, and went on to serve a record fifth term as president of Iceland.

Candidates and campaign

There were six candidates, but the election became a contest between the incumbent president, and the journalist Thóra Arnórsdóttir, who wanted to return the presidency to a more ceremonial role.

Main candidates:

• The incumbent president, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, initially stated he would not seek re-election,^[2][3][4] but then stated on 4 March that he would run for a fifth term, after receiving a petition of over 30,000 voters in favour of his candidacy.^[5] Speaking in Selfoss, he said that "under normal circumstances I would have come to a different conclusion, but more than 30,000 Icelanders, which is a significant part of all the voters in Iceland, requested that I continue. Many significant matters that are likely to lead to conflict and confrontations are going to be on the agenda in the coming years."^[6]
• Thóra Arnórsdóttir, a journalist and news presenter. She announced her candidacy on 4 April and received the necessary 1,500 signatures in one weekend.

Others:

• Ari Trausti Guðmundsson, a writer, geophysicist and formerly of the Communist Party of Iceland, but now an independent.
• Dr. Herdís Thorgeirsdóttir,^[7] a lawyer and professor of constitutional law and human rights at Bifröst University, announced her candidacy on 30 March.^[8] She called a press meeting that day and said her campaign would be an experiment on democracy, whether it was possible to run without the backing of powerful financial actors and political parties. She referred to the financial collapse in 2008 and the Parliamentary investigative report which concluded that the main reason for the collapse were the close ties between politics and the corporate world seriously damaging the democratic process. Her candidacy was an attempt to increase accountability in the democratic process by not accepting funding from corporations as it is crucial in the struggle against prevailing corruption to limit the influence of money in elections.^{[citation needed]} She is the President^[9] of the European Women Women Lawyers' Association and Iceland's representative at the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe.
• Andrea Jóhanna Ólafsdóttir, former chairwoman of
  2008–2012 Icelandic financial crisis. A vocal critic of both government and financial institutions, she announced her candidacy on 1 May.^[10] She supports the minimum wage
  of 193,000 krona.
• Hannes Bjarnason, a farmer who lived in Norway for 14 years. He seeks to enhance the place of "morality" in the public debate and to "safeguard" national interests.

Two other candidates declared their intent to stand in the election, but later dropped out:[11]

• Jón Lárusson, a police inspector charged with investigating tax fraud since the economic crisis. He claims to be apolitical and has opposed
  membership of the EU.^[12]
• Ástþór Magnússon, previously a candidate in the 2004 election, a businessman and pacifist, who announced his candidacy on 3 March 2012.^[13]

Campaign

After trailing in the opinion polls, Ólafur resorted to a

An opinion poll published on 21 May by the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Iceland showed Thóra leading with 46.2%, with Ólafur on 37.8%. However, after she suspended her campaign as she was due to give birth, the gap narrowed as Ólafur stood alone as the leading campaigner.^[12] An average of three poll prior to the election indicated Ólafur leading with 45% and Thóra in second place with 37.7% ahead of four other candidates.^[6]

Conduct

Voting centres were open from 9AM to 10PM. After having voted, Thóra said to

According to Euronews, Ólafur's win was seen as having "emboldened a presidential office that had up until then played a mainly ceremonial role."^[27]

If one of the female candidates had won, Iceland would have had nearly all its leading governing and religious positions held by women; the female president would be head of state, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir would be head of government, Ásta Ragnheiður Jóhannesdóttir would be the Althing speaker, while Agnes M. Sigurðardóttir would have been the head of the Church of Iceland.^[12]

Further reading

• Gunnar, H. K., Indriðason, I.,H., & Viktor Orri Valgarðsson. (2012). What were the voters thinking? the presidential election in Iceland 2012. Stjórnmál Og Stjórnsýsla, 8(2), 221-244

References

External links

• District finder
• List of voting centres in Reykjavik

Candidates

• Andrea Ólafsdóttir