Select a language
On April 30, three days after general elections, Icelandic president Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson will appoint a prime minister charged with the task of forming of a new government.
The two likely choices are Bjarni Benediktsson, 43, head of the Independence Party, which obtained 26.7 per cent of the vote and 19 of the 63 seats in Iceland's parliament, the Alþingi, and Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, 38, leader of the Progressive Party, which also obtained 19 seats, but with the lesser score of 24.43 per cent. Nonetheless, Gunnlaugsson has laid claim to the post on the ground that support for his party has more than doubled since general elections were last held in 2009.
In any case, the two parties are expected to form a coalition, as they did in the 1990s and the 2000s.
