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Iceland Elects 1st Female-Majority Govt09/26 10:45
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) -- Iceland has elected a female-majority parliament,
a landmark for gender equality in the North Atlantic island nation, in a vote
that saw centrist parties make the biggest gains.
After all votes were counted Sunday, female candidates held 33 seats in
Iceland's 63-seat parliament, the Althing. The three parties in the outgoing
coalition government led by Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir won a total of
37 seats in Saturday's vote, two more than in the last election, and appeared
likely to continue in power.
The election makes Iceland the only country in Europe, and one of a handful
in the world, with a majority of female lawmakers. According to the
Inter-Parliamentary Union, Rwanda leads the world with women making up 61% of
its Chamber of Deputies, with Cuba, Nicaragua and Mexico narrowly over the 50%
mark. Worldwide, the organization says just over a quarter of legislators are
women.
The milestone for women comes despite a poor outcome for parties on the
left, where female candidates are more often frontrunners.
Politics professor Silja Bara Omarsdottir said the gender quotas implemented
by left-leaning parties for the past decade had managed to create a new norm
across Iceland's political spectrum.
"It is no longer acceptable to ignore gender equality when selecting
candidates," she said.
Opinion polls had suggested a victory for left-leaning parties in the
unpredictable election, which saw 10 parties competing for seats. But the
center-right Independence Party took the largest share of votes, winning 16
seats, seven of them held by women. The centrist Progressive Party celebrated
the biggest gain, winning 13 seats, five more than last time.
Before the election, the two parties formed Iceland's three-party coalition
government, together with Jakobsdottir's Left Green Party. Her party lost
several seats, but kept eight, outscoring poll predictions.
The three ruling parties haven't announced whether they will work together
for another term, but given the strong support from voters it appears likely.
It will take days, if not weeks, for a new government to be formed and
announced.
Climate change had ranked high on the election agenda in Iceland, a
glacier-studded volcanic island nation of about 350,000 people in the North
Atlantic. An exceptionally warm summer by Icelandic standards -- with 59 days
of temperatures above 20 C (68 F) -- and shrinking glaciers have helped drive
global warming up the political agenda.
But that didn't appear to have translated into increased support for any of
the four left-leaning parties that campaigned to cut carbon emissions by more
than Iceland is committed to under the Paris Climate Agreement.
Among incoming members of parliament are the oldest and youngest lawmakers
ever to take a seat in Iceland: 72-year-old burger joint owner Tomas Tomasson
and 21-year-old law student Lenya Run Karim, a daughter of Kurdish immigrants
who is from the anti-establishment Pirate Party.
"I want to improve Iceland's treatment of refugees and asylum-seekers," she
told The Associated Press, vowing to speak up for young people at parliament.
"Our ideas need to be heard more."
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