Three primaries took place in Iceland last weekend, in the Northeast and Southwest constituencies for the Social Democratic Alliance and in the Southwest constituency for the Independence Party, where chairman Bjarni Benediktsson won the first seat with 55.5 percent of votes.

Bjarni Benediktsson. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.

This is the worst results for the party’s chair in more than 30 years, ever since Geir Hallgrímsson didn’t receive more than 37.5 percent of votes for the leading seat in 1983, Fréttablaðið reports.

A total of 5,070 people participated in the Independence Party primary in the Southwest constituency, which is a turnout of 34 percent. Ragnheiður Ríkharðsdóttir placed second, Jón Gunnarsson third, Vilhjálmur Bjarnason fourth and Elín Hirst fifth.

Ragnar Önundarson, who challenged Bjarni for the first seat, didn’t achieve any of the first seven seats.

In the Social Democrat primary for the Southwest constituency, Árni Páll Árnason, who is running for chair, and Minister of Finance Katrín Júlíusdóttir both ran for the first seat.

Árni Páll won with 49 percent of votes and Katrín ended up in the second seat with support of 43 percent of the electorate.

Magnús Orri Schram earned the third seat on the list, Lúðvík Geirsson fourth and Margrét Gauja Magnúsdóttir fifth. However, due to gender quotas, Lúðvík must switch seats with Margrét.

A total of 2,129 people voted in the primary, which is a turnout of 37 percent. In the party’s primary in the Northeast constituency, there was also a turnout of 37 percent with 832 people casting their votes.

Kristján L. Möller won the first seat with support of 73 percent of voters. Sigmundur Ernir Rúnarsson, who aimed for the first to third seat, ended up in the fourth with Erna Indriðadóttir and Jónína Rós Guðmundsdóttir claiming the second and third seats, respectively.

Judging by the support rate for the Social Democrats in recent polls, Sigmundur will drop out of parliament since he didn’t make it higher up the list.

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ESA