Icelandic presidential election, 2004
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Template:Politics of Iceland A presidential election was held in Iceland on Saturday, 26 June 2004.
By tradition, Icelandic presidential elections are uncontested when the incumbent president indicates a wish to obtain a new mandate. The current president, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, was elected in 1996 with 40.9% of the vote, in an election with an 85.9% turnout contested by four candidates. In 2000 he was re-elected unopposed. When the President announced his intention to seek another mandate in 2004, two other candidates emerged:
- Ástþór Magnússon, a businessman and militant pacifist, who won 2.6% of the vote in the 1996 election and failed to obtain the necessary 1,500 supporters when he attempted to stand in the 2000 election, and
- Baldur Ágústsson, who was unknown to the general public.
Icelandic presidential elections are not fought on a political basis; instead, candidates attempt to use their personalities to attract supporters and appear as a living symbol of national unity.
The presidency is an almost entirely powerless office, as by tradition the presidents do not use the powers granted to them by the Constitution, instead just exercising moral authority, although President Grímsson has expressed a wish to have a public discussion on the role of the Head of State. Unprecedentedly in the history of the Icelandic Republic, on 2 June 2004 President Grímsson vetoed a media ownership law passed by the Althing, although Davíð Oddsson, who was Prime Minister at the time, claimed that the veto was illegal because the President's daughter worked for one of the affected companies. There was little doubt that President Grímsson would be re-elected, but it was interesting to observe what effect the veto controversy had on the voting – the unprecedentedly high number of empty ballots (20.6% of the total) being thought to be largely a protest at the veto.
Final results
Final results show President Ólafur re-elected with 86% of valid votes:
NATIONAL SUMMARY ============================================================================= Candidate Votes % ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ástþór Magnússon Wium 2.001 1.5% Baldur Ágústsson 13.250 9.9% Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson 90.662 67.5% Empty ballots 27.627 20.6% Void votes 834 0.6% ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 134.374 votes ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- All three candidates stood as independents. These are the final figures.
External links and references
- Official presidential election results (http://www3.domsmalaraduneyti.is/forsetakosningar) (in Icelandic)