Constituencies of Iceland

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Iceland is divided into 6 constituencies for the purpose of selecting representatives to the Alþingi (parliament). The current division was established by a 1999 constitution amendment and was an attempt to balance the weight of different districts of the country where a vote cast in the rural districts would count much more than a vote cast in Reykjavik city and its suburbs. The new division comprises three countryside constituencies (NW, NE and S) and three city constituencies (RN, RS and SW). The imbalance of votes between city and country still exists and a provision in the election law states that if the number of votes behind each seat in parliament in one constituency goes below half of what it is in some othe constituency, one seat shall be transferred between them. This might happen in near future as the least populous constituency (Northwest) is getting close to that limit and might lose a seat to the most populous one (Southwest) which comprises the booming Reykjavik suburbs.

The constituencies are the following (number in brackets indicate number of representatives for that constituency out of 63 total):

• Reykjavik North (11)
• Reykjavik South (11)
• Northwest (10)
• Northeast (10)
• South (10)
• Southwest (11)