At stake in this election:

• 63 seats in the Parliament (Althing)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Olafur Ragnar GRIMSSON
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Johanna SIGURDARDOTTIR
• Assembly: Iceland has a unicameral Parliament (Althing) with 63 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by simple majority vote to serve a 4-year term.
• The Prime Minister is appointed by the president with the approval of the parliament.
• In the Parliament (Althing), 54 members are elected through an open-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms and 9 members are elected by open list proportional representation in multi-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms.***

*** There are six mult-member districts. Each compensatory seat corresponds to a multi-member district. These seats are awarded to parties from the same open lists in order to make the parties' overall seat shares proportional to their national vote shares.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: Independence Party (IP) / Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn
  • Leader: Bjarni BENEDIKTSSON
  • Seats won in this election: 16
  • Seats won in last election: 22
• Party: Social Democratic Alliance (SDA) / Samfylkingin**
  • Leader: Jóhanna SIGURDARDOTTIR
  • Seats won in this election: 20
  • Seats won in last election: 20
• Party: Left-Green Movement (LGM) / Vinstrihreyfingin - grænt framboð
  • Leader: Steingrimur SIGFUSSON
  • Seats won in this election: 14
  • Seats won in last election: 5
• Party: Progressive Party (PP) / Framsóknarflokkurinn
  • Leader: Sigmundur GUNNLAUGSSON
  • Seats won in this election: 9
  • Seats won in last election: 12
• Party: Liberal Party (LP) / Frjálslyndi flokkurinn
  • Leader: Gudjon KRISTJANSSON
  • Seats won in this election: 0
  • Seats won in last election: 4
• Party: Citizens' Movement / Borgarahreyfingin
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 4
  • Seats won in last election: 0
• Party: Democracy Movement / Lýðræðishreyfingin
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0
  • Seats won in last election: 0

** The Social Democratic Alliance (SDA) includes the People's Alliance (PA), the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and the Women's List.

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 318,499 (2009)
• Registered Voters: 227,889 (April 2009 )

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 158,216 (2009)

·         Is Iceland a signatory to CEDAW: Yes (24 July 1980)

·         Has Iceland ratified CEDAW: Yes (18 June 1985)

·         Gender Quota: No

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 27 (following the 2009 elections)

·         Human Development Index Position: 16 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: N/A

Disability Data:

·         Is Iceland a signatory to CRPD: Yes (30 March 2007)

·         Has Iceland ratified CRPD: No

·         Population with a disability: 47,774 (est.)