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 Designate Sigmundur GUNNLAUGSSON **
• Assembly: Iceland has a unicameral Parliament (Althing) with 63 seats.

** GUNNLAUGSSON, chairman of the Progressive Party, was asked to form a government on April 30th, 2013, after the April 27th election.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by plurality vote to serve a 4-year term.
• Prime Minister Designate 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 multi-member districts. Each of nine compensatory seats is assigned by the election commission to 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. Parties must clear a 5 percent threshold to win these compensatory seats.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: Independence Party (IP) / Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn
  • Leader: Bjami BENEDIKTSSON
  • Seats won in this election: 19
  • Seats won in last election: 16
• Party: Social Democratic Alliance (SDA) / Samfylkingin**
  • Leader: Árni Páll ÁRNASON
  • Seats won in this election: 9
  • Seats won in last election: 20
• Party: Left-Green Movement (LGM) / Vinstrihreyfingin - grænt framboð
  • Leader: Katrin JAKOBSDOTTIR
  • Seats won in this election: 7
  • Seats won in last election: 14
• Party: Progressive Party (PP) / Framsóknarflokkurinn
  • Leader: Sigmundur GUNNLAUGSSON
  • Seats won in this election: 19
  • Seats won in last election: 9
• Party: Bright Future/ Björt framtíð
  • Leader: Heiða Kristín HELGADOTTIR
  • Seats won in this election: 6
  • Seats won in last election: N/A
• Party: Dawn/ Dögun
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0
  • Seats won in last election: N/A
• Party: Rainbow/ Regnboginn
  • Leader: Bjarni HAROARSON
  • Seats won in this election: 0
  • Seats won in last election: N/A
• Party: Pirate Party of Iceland/ Píratar
  • Leader: Birgitta JONSDOTTIR
  • Seats won in this election: 3
  • Seats won in last election: N/A

** Prime Minister and SDA party leader Jóhanna SIGURDARDOTTIR is not seeking re-election .

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 323,764 (2013)
• Registered Voters: 237,957 (2013)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 161,344 (2013)

·         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: 25 (following the 2013 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: 48,564 (est.)