Early parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on 28 October 2017. On 15 September 2017, the three-party coalition government collapsed after the departure of Bright Future over a scandal involving Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson's father writing a letter recommending a convicted child sex offender have his "honour restored". Bjarni subsequently called for a snap election, which was officially scheduled for 28 October 2017 following the dissolution of the Althing.

Though many opinion polls in the run-up to the election indicated an increase in support for the Left-Green Movement, the Independence Party retained its position as the Althing's largest party. Following the election, four-party coalition talks led by the Left-Greens ensued; however, after the Progressive Party rejected the possibility, a three-party coalition led by the Left-Greens including the Independence Party and Progressive Party was negotiated. After formally receiving the mandate to form a coalition on 28 November, Left-Green leader Katrín Jakobsdóttir was designated Prime Minister to lead the new government on 30 November.

Background A three-party coalition of the Independence Party, Viðreisn and Bright Future had been put together after the 2016 election; it held a narrow majority of one seat in Parliament. The cabinet formed was led by Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson, head of the Independence Party.

The Icelandic legal system has a mechanism whereby a convicted individual can have their "honour restored", that is have certain civil rights restored, from five years after serving their sentence if three letters of recommendation from persons of good character who know the individual are provided. Hjalti Sigurjón Hauksson was convicted in 2004 for multiple rapes of his stepdaughter from age five for twelve years. He served a jail term of five and a half years. Bjarni's father, Benedikt Sveinsson, was a friend of Hjalti Sigurjón's. Benedikt signed a letter of recommendation, which he said Hjalti Sigurjón brought to him already drafted. Bjarni was informed of this in July 2017 by the justice minister, Sigríður Á. Andersen, also of the Independence Party, but Benedikt's support was not revealed by the government at first. At first Sigríður refused to say in public who had signed the letter, but she was ordered to do so by a Parliamentary committee. Bjarni said it would have been illegal for him to reveal the information earlier.

Benedikt's involvement emerged in September. Bright Future left the coalition, accusing the Independence Party of a "serious breach of trust". Benedikt apologised for signing the letter. Sigríður said she was preparing a bill to reform the restored honour system.

Bjarni acknowledged the need for new elections, although the decision is made by the President, Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson. Other parties supported new elections, although Birgitta Jónsdóttir, parliamentary chair of the Pirates, initially suggested a five-party coalition government of the Pirate Party, Viðreisn, the Left-Greens, the Social Democrats and Bright Future should be explored. There had been unsuccessful discussions about such a coalition after the previous election.

According to a poll conducted by Morgunblaðið, 57% of Icelanders believed calling the snap election was right.

Candidates and campaign The Pirate Party reject a traditional model of party leadership, but Birgitta Jónsdóttir co-founded the party and is often described as the party's informal leader. She announced that she would not be standing in the election. After Birgitta announced that she was not standing, Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson announced that he would now be running to be an MP, having earlier quit due to what he described as bullying by Birgitta. The centre-right Independence and Reform Parties both campaigned on a platform of continuing their governmental efforts and retaining power in the Althing, as both parties were in coalition before the collapse of the previous parliament. Meanwhile, the Left-Green Movement sought an opportunity to govern for the first time since 2009 and implement ideologically leftist policies.

Former Progressive Party Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson announced in an open letter that he planned to create a party before the elections. This decision was triggered by a leadership dispute amongst the Progressive Party, and led to the formation of the Centre Party on 24 September. The party's platform was broadly similar to that of its predecessor, but was characterised by observers in the media as being "populist", with a particular emphasis on reform of the banking sector and firms such as Íslandsbanki.

Electoral system The 63 members of the Althing were elected using open list proportional representation in six multi-member constituencies. Voters could change the ranking of candidates or cross their names out completely.Elections to the Icelandic Althing (Parliament) Election Resources Of the 63 seats, 54 are elected using constituency results and determined using the d'Hondt method. The remaining nine supplementary seats are awarded to parties that crossed the 5% national electoral threshold in order to give them a total number of seats equivalent to their national share of the vote.

Participating parties

Parties with a list for all constituencies Name Listletter Leader Ideology 2016 result % Seats Independence Party D Bjarni Benediktsson ConservatismLiberal conservatismEconomic liberalism Centre-rightto right-wing 29.0% Left-Green Movement V Katrín Jakobsdóttir Democratic socialismEco-socialismFeminism Centre-leftto left-wing 15.9% Pirate Party P Collective leadership Pirate politicsDirect democracyTransparency Syncretic 14.5% Progressive Party B Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson PopulismAgrarianismLiberalism Centre tocentre-right 11.5% Viðreisn C Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir LiberalismEconomic liberalismGreen liberalism Centre tocentre-right 10.5% Bright Future A Óttarr Proppé LiberalismSocial liberalismGreen liberalism Centre 7.2% Social Democratic Alliance S Logi Már Einarsson Social democracyFeminismPro-Europeanism Centre-left 5.7% People's Party F Inga Sæland SocialismPopulismDisability rights Centre-leftto left-wing Did not exist Centre Party M Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson CentrismPopulismNordic agrarianism Centre-right Did not exist

Parties with a list for only some constituencies Name Listletter Leader Ideology 2016 result % Seats People's Front of Iceland R Þorvaldur Þorvaldsson Anti-capitalismEnvironmentalismHard Euroscepticism Far-left 0.3% Dawn T Board of directors 1.7%

The Icelandic National Front (right-wing/far-right) was going to take part in the election with list letter E, but has since withdrawn all its lists.

Opinion polls

Poll source Fieldwork date Samplesize D V P B C A S F M Others Lead 2017 election 28 Oct 2017 – 25.2 16.9 9.2 10.7 6.7 1.2 12.1 6.9 10.9 0.2 8.4 MMR 26–27 Oct 2017 980 21.3 16.6 11.0 11.7 8.1 2.2 12.5 4.4 11.4 0.9 4.7 Gallup 23–27 Oct 2017 3,848 25.3 17.3 9.0 8.9 8.2 1.5 15.5 4.0 9.7 0.6 8.0 Zenter 23–27 Oct 2017 962 22.5 19.6 9.6 9.6 7.1 1.9 14.7 4.3 10.2 0.7 2.9 Háskóli Íslands 22–25 Oct 2017 2,283 24.5 20.2 8.8 7.9 8.3 1.3 15.3 4.2 9.3 0.2 4.6 Fréttablaðið 23–24 Oct 2017 1,602 24.1 19.2 9.4 6.2 7.5 1.9 14.3 4.4 9.6 3.4 4.9 MMR 20–23 Oct 2017 979 22.9 19.9 9.3 8.6 5.5 1.8 13.5 4.7 12.3 1.3 3.0 Háskóli Íslands 16–19 Oct 2017 2,395 25.1 23.2 8.2 7.1 5.7 1.5 15.6 3.3 9.8 0.5 1.9 Gallup 13–19 Oct 2017 2,870 22.6 23.3 10.7 7.4 5.8 1.2 13.3 5.7 9.4 0.5 0.7 MMR 17–18 Oct 2017 1,007 19.9 19.1 11.9 8.0 6.7 1.6 15.8 5.3 11.0 0.8 0.8 Fréttablaðið 16 Oct 2017 806 22.2 27.0 10.0 7.5 5.0 2.1 10.4 3.7 10.7 1.4 4.8 Háskóli Íslands 9–12 Oct 2017 1,250 22.6 27.4 9.2 5.5 3.4 2.6 15.3 6.5 6.4 1.1 4.8 Gallup 29 Sep–12 Oct 2017 3,876 23.7 23.0 8.8 7.2 4.8 3.0 13.4 5.7 9.5 0.9 0.7 MMR 6–11 Oct 2017 966 21.1 21.8 10.5 5.9 3.6 4.2 13.0 7.4 10.7 1.8 0.7 Fréttablaðið 10 Oct 2017 804 22.2 29.9 8.5 7.1 3.3 3.6 8.3 6.1 9.2 1.8 7.7 Háskóli Íslands 2–6 Oct 2017 1,083 20.7 28.2 9.1 5.5 3.1 2.7 10.8 9.0 9.5 1.4 7.5 Fréttablaðið 2–3 Oct 2017 800 22.3 28.6 11.4 5.5 3.0 2.6 10.6 5.8 8.9 1.4 6.3 MMR 26–28 Sep 2017 1,012 23.5 24.7 10.0 6.4 4.9 2.5 10.4 8.5 7.3 1.7 1.2 Háskóli Íslands 25–28 Sep 2017 952 24.3 28.8 11.6 7.0 4.8 4.3 7.5 6.5 4.6 0.6 4.5 Gallup 15–28 Sep 2017 4,092 23.1 25.4 10.3 9.9 3.6 4.6 9.3 10.1 2.0 1.6 2.3 Háskóli Íslands 19–21 Sep 2017 908 23 30 10 11 6 3 8 9 – 0 7 Fréttablaðið 18 Sep 2017 800 23.0 22.8 13.7 10.4 5.2 7.1 5.1 10.9 – 1.8 0.2 Zenter 15–18 Sep 2017 956 26.4 22.8 12.5 10.5 2.7 5.6 9.0 9.8 – 0.8 3.6 Gallup 14 Sep 2017 23.6 24.4 9.8 10.4 5.2 4.4 9.1 11.6 – 1.5 0.8 MMR 4 Sep 2017 25.9 19.2 13.8 9.7 7.3 3.0 9.6 9.1 – 2.4 6.7 Gallup 10–30 Aug 2017 4,108 26.3 19.5 13.1 10.8 4.8 2.8 9.7 10.6 – 2.4 6.8 MMR 15–18 Aug 2017 955 24.5 20.5 13.5 10.1 6.0 3.6 10.6 6.7 – 4.5 4.0 Gallup 12–31 Jul 2017 3,827 26.5 21.2 12.9 11.4 5.3 3.7 9.1 8.4 – 1.5 5.3 MMR 18–21 Jul 2017 909 29.3 20.4 13.3 9.6 4.6 2.4 10.6 6.1 – 3.6 8.9 Gallup 15 Jun–2 Jul 2017 2,870 27.5 21.5 14.2 11.3 5.6 3.3 9.2 3.8 – 3.6 6.0 MMR 21 Jun 2017 28.4 22.6 13.3 10.2 5.3 3.3 9.1 2.8 – 5.0 5.8 MMR 6–14 Jun 2017 974 24.9 20.6 13.7 13.4 5.2 2.9 11.3 2.8 – 5.2 4.3 Gallup 3–31 May 2017 7,133 25.6 24.3 12.9 11.0 6.2 3.4 9.4 4.2 – 3.0 1.3 MMR 11–16 May 2017 943 25.6 21.4 14.1 12.2 5.5 3.4 9.3 3.6 – 5.0 4.2 Gallup 30 Mar–1 May 2017 8,206 26.4 24.0 13.1 10.9 6.9 4.4 8.3 3.7 – 3.3 2.4 MMR 11–26 Apr 2017 926 25.2 23.4 12.8 11.1 5.0 3.2 10.6 3.2 – 5.4 1.8 Gallup 2–30 Mar 2017 5,798 29.2 24.5 10.3 10.5 6.0 6.0 8.3 2.8 – 2.4 4.7 Fréttablaðið 20–21 Mar 2017 791 32.1 27.3 14.3 7.0 3.1 3.8 8.8 – – 3.6 4.8 MMR 6–13 Mar 2017 921 25.4 23.5 13.7 11.4 5.5 5.0 8.8 3.7 – 3.0 1.9 Gallup 1–28 Feb 2017 5,557 27.6 24.3 12.0 10.7 5.4 6.4 8.3 2.4 – 2.9 3.3 MMR 17–24 Feb 2017 928 26.9 23.9 11.6 12.2 6.3 5.2 8.0 2.5 – 3.4 3.3 MMR 10–15 Feb 2017 983 24.4 27.0 11.9 10.7 6.2 5.4 10.0 2.6 – 1.8 2.6 MMR 1–5 Feb 2017 983 23.8 27.0 13.6 9.7 5.6 5.3 7.8 3.6 – 3.6 3.2 Gallup 5–29 Jan 2017 4,288 28.0 22.8 13.4 10.5 5.3 7.2 7.3 3.3 – 2.2 5.2 MMR 12–26 Jan 2017 910 24.6 22.0 13.6 12.5 6.8 7.0 7.0 3.6 – 2.9 2.6 MMR 3–10 Jan 2017 954 26.1 24.3 14.6 10.9 6.9 6.3 6.4 2.1 – 2.4 1.8 Gallup 1–29 Dec 2016 4,192 29.0 20.0 14.6 8.9 7.4 8.7 7.5 2.2 – 1.7 9.0 MMR 26 Dec 2016 29.3 20.7 12.7 10.2 7.0 9.1 6.9 2.2 – 1.9 8.6 MMR 14 Dec 2016 29.6 21.6 14.1 9.1 5.6 8.9 6.3 1.6 – 3.2 8.0 Fréttablaðið 12–14 Dec 2016 791 31.8 17.0 13.1 9.7 10.1 10.8 5.6 – – 1.9 14.8 MMR 1 Dec 2016 26.1 20.5 15.6 8.0 7.8 9.8 6.6 1.9 – 3.7 5.6 Gallup 10–29 Nov 2016 5,207 28.0 20.9 13.7 9.0 8.9 8.6 5.3 3.0 – 2.6 7.1 MMR 7–14 Nov 2016 904 26.0 20.7 11.9 9.4 10.6 9.6 5.6 3.4 – 2.8 5.3 2016 election 29 Oct 2016 – 29.0 15.9 14.5 11.5 10.5 7.2 5.7 3.5 – 2.2 13.1

If a sample size was not provided for the poll, only the given (Gallup) or end (MMR) date was provided by the polling firm.

Results The Independence Party retained its position as the Althing's largest party. However, the Independence Party's parliamentary representation decreased by five seats to 16 and it lost its governing majority. The Left-Green Movement retained its position as the Althing's second largest party, increasing its representation by one seat to 11. The Social Democratic Alliance saw a large increase in support, doubling its vote share from 2016, and entered the new parliament with seven members. The Progressive Party held steady at eight seats while the newly formed Centre Party, founded by former Progressive Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, won seven seats. The Pirate Party, which entered the election as the Althing's third largest party, lost four seats and was reduced to six seats. Entering the Althing for the first time, the People's Party obtained four seats. Viðreisn, a member of the outgoing government, lost three seats and was left with four seats. In line with all pre-election polling, Bright Future did not meet the 5% threshold and was therefore not returned to the Althing.