The current head of state wins the Icelandic presidential election convincingly

According to preliminary results announced Saturday night, Johanneson won 90% of the vote, securing a second four-year term as president.

Preliminary count counts reflect the results of pre-election polls that gave Johnson’s rival, right-wing former Wall Street broker Goodmundur Franklin Jonson, no chance.

“I am honored and proud,” Johanneson said in a conversation with AFP on Saturday night, commenting on the election results. “This election result is a confirmation to me of the fact that my fellow citizens (…) have accepted my approach to office.”

Jonson has already conceded his defeat to congratulated the winner.

Iceland is a parliamentary republic and the president has a more symbolic role in the country. However, the head of state has the right to veto laws approved by parliament or to put them to a referendum.

Today, the 52-year-old historian and father of five, Johanneson, won the 2016 election and became the youngest president of Iceland since independence in 1944.

Over the years, Johanneson has tried to unite Icelandic society, and data from the Institute for Sociological Research, MMR, show that support for him ranged from 76 to 86% and was on average 25 percentage points higher than his predecessor, Olafur Ragnar Grimson.

“He is seen as a man from a nation that is not pompous and overly official, and he is obviously on the minds of Icelanders,” said Olafur Hardarson, a professor of political science at the University of Iceland.

The Covid-19 epidemic has clearly not been particularly affected by the election, as Iceland has not been hit hard by the new coronavirus, with a population of 365,000, ten deaths and 11 active cases, but voters were called to two meters apart and use hand sanitizers.

Iceland is the second country in Europe to hold elections following the lifting of restrictions on Covid-19. Serbia held a parliamentary election last Sunday, but today presidential elections are taking place in Poland, while a second round of municipal elections is being held in France, which had to be canceled in March due to a pandemic.