October 1959 Icelandic parliamentary election

October 1959 Icelandic parliamentary election

25 and 26 October 1959
All 40 seats in the Lower House and 20 seats in the Upper House of Althing
Turnout	90.37%
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– Upper House Independence Ólafur Thors 39.72 8 +1 Progressive Hermann Jónasson 25.71 6 0 People's Alliance Hannibal Valdimarsson 16.01 3 +1 Social Democratic Emil Jónsson 15.17 3 +1 Lower House Independence Ólafur Thors 39.72 16 +3 Progressive Hermann Jónasson 25.71 11 −2 People's Alliance Hannibal Valdimarsson 16.01 7 +2 Social Democratic Emil Jónsson 15.17 6 +2 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Prime Minister before Prime Minister after Emil Jónsson Social Democratic Ólafur Thors Independence

Early parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on 25 and 26 October 1959. Following the electoral reforms made after the June elections, the Independence Party won 16 of the 40 seats in the Lower House of the Althing.

Electoral reforms

The June 1959 elections had ended with both the Independence Party and the Progressive Party winning 13 seats, despite the IP receiving 42% of the vote to the PP's 27%. The electoral system at the time was rural–urban proportional representation: a lower tier comprised single member constituencies elected using first-past-the-post voting, two-member constituencies elected using party-list proportional representation (party-list PR) and one large multi-member constituency for Reykjavík that also used party-list PR, topped up by an upper tier of eleven seats chosen from a single national compensatory list.

The reforms saw the replacement of this rural-urban proportional system with a two-tier party-list PR system; the lower tier now comprised eight multi-member constituencies, all elected using party-list PR. Five constituencies elected five members each, two elected six members each and Reykjavík elected 12. The number of seats for Reykjavík was also increased from the prior elections, increasing the overall total in the Lower House from 35 to 40 and in the Upper House from 17 to 20.

The voters’ capacity to change the order of names on the PR lists was greatly reduced compared to prior elections as well; the existing Borda count-based system was now only being used to calculate one-third of the final number of votes deemed to have been received by each candidate, while the party’s unaltered ordering determined the remaining two-thirds.

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats
				Lower House	+/–	Upper House	+/–
	Independence Party	33,800	39.72	16	+3	8	+1
	Progressive Party	21,882	25.71	11	–2	6	0
	People's Alliance	13,621	16.01	7	+2	3	+1
	Social Democratic Party	12,909	15.17	6	+2	3	+1
	National Preservation Party	2,883	3.39	0	0	0	0
Total		85,095	100.00	40	+5	20	+3
Valid votes		85,095	98.46
Invalid/blank votes		1,331	1.54
Total votes		86,426	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		95,637	90.37
Source: Nohlen & Stöver