Iceland Misses out on Europe’s First Female-Majority Parliament After Recount

Unfortunately, Icelands’ celebration has been short-lived!

Iceland claims to elect a majority female parliament after the recount results have changed. Following the recount, Icelands found that the country had missed out on a first female majority. UAE is one of the five countries in the world where women occupied half of the parliament seats. Read on to find out about how the recount changed the result of Iceland almost getting Europe’s first female-majority Parliament.

Iceland Thought It Has Elected Major Female Parliament

Iceland thought briefly on Sunday it would remain the first country in Europe to have a women-majority parliament following its election a day earlier. Still, the recount showed it fell short, an election official said. Out of 63 seats, 30 were won by women, making it 47.6 percent. Iceland has celebrated electing a female-majority parliament on Sunday. No nationals contain over 50% women lawmakers. Even Sweden had 47%, according to data compiled by the World Bank.

As per the election result, women candidates received a 52% vote share in the recent Parliamentary elections. But, following a recount in western Iceland, it has switched to 47.6%. The initial results showed that female candidates got 33 seats out of 63. But it has decreased to 30 seats.” The female victory remains the big story of these elections,” politics professor Olafur Hardarson said to broadcaster RUV after the recount.

As per the data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Rwanda, Cuba, and Nicaragua are the countries to have female-majority parliaments. The United Arab Emirates and Mexico claim to have 50 percent women. No other countries in Europe secured the 50 percent threshold. Finland and Sweden hold 47 percent and 46 percent. Iceland’s voting system is subdivided into regions, and the recount in western Iceland took place after questions about the number of votes. The mistakes that occurred were not completely justified but thought to be human errors. The three parties in the outgoing coalition government governed by Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir secured a total of 37 seats in Saturday’s vote. In this election, they received two more votes compared to the last election. 

The 21-year old law student Lenya Run Karim was one of the candidates who overturned the victory in the recount. She was the daughter of Kurdish immigrants.