Iceland misses out on Europe’s 1st female-majority Parliament

“I stand corrected. Following a recount, women now hold 47.6% of the seats in parliament in Iceland. That is still the highest representation for women in Europe, but we can do better! It is 2021 and Europe is yet to elect women as a majority of parliamentarians”

GUÐNI TH. JÓHANNESSON, President of Iceland

Iceland’s claim of electing Europe’s first female-majority legislature was retracted due to a miscalculation after the centrist ruling coalition added to its majority.

While initial data showed that some 33 of 63 seats in Iceland’s parliament, the Althingi, were won by women in Saturday’s ballot, it later emerged that a handful of votes had been miscounted, affecting the distribution of so-called “compensatory” seats, according to public broadcaster RUV, which communicates election results in an official role. This means there will be 33 men and 30 women in parliament.

The change doesn’t affect the overall distribution of seats showing Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir’s bloc, which unites three parties from left to right, boosted its representation by two to a combined 37.

Predictions failed to pan out that Jakobsdottir’s coalition would struggle in the face of calls from the left for higher health-care spending and worries over climate change in the North Atlantic island nation.

Instead, the grouping won a fresh endorsement from voters after getting the Iceland’s tourismdependent economy through a pandemic-induced slump.