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 Reykjavík 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 other constituency, one seat shall be transferred between them. This has accually occurred and as of the next elections to Alþingi in 2007 the Northwest constituency will have 9 members of Alþingi and the Southwest constituency 12 members.

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