Skafti Hardarson will inherit Iceland.
For those who are not fluent in Icelandic, Skafti is the Icelandic version of Glenn Beck, albeit with a much smaller following, a blog site instead of a TV show and where he lacks in props he more than makes up for in derisory and outraged vocabulary.
Skafti thinks the idea of a constitutional congress is a waste of money and senseless in the current unstable environment. He has made no secret of this opinion, along with other opinions about the horrors of the current leftist government, protesters and special investigations. When Skafti first arrived on the blogging scene, people debated on Facebook whether he was real or not. His hatred of Jon Asgeir Johannesson, Baugur, the Social Democrats and professions of admiration in David Oddsson were considered too blind, too outrageous and too deep-seethed to be written by anyone who is not a comical character or a lunatic fanatic.
Others then begun pointing out similarities between Skafti’s writing style and the one used by his long time friend and libertarian ally Hannes Holmsteinn Gissurarson. But whoever wrote Skafti’s words, sure did not like the idea of Iceland holding a constitutional congress.
So Skafti did something unexpected. He ran for the congress with a mandate that the constitution should be left unchanged. Skafti was one of almost 500 people who ran and he did not win a place. But then he did something which was not so unexpected. He challenged the execution of the election on technical details. Of the 498 other candidates who ran, only Skafti and two other Independence Party members and supporters, Odinn Sigthorsson and Thorgrimur S. Thorgrimsson went to court attempting to get the result overturned.
The threesome complained that the voting ballots were traceable, that there was not enough privacy in the voting booths, that they were not allowed to have a representative present during counting. All debatable points in the first personal vote Iceland has conducted with so many candidates.
It is worth remembering why the constitutional congress was held in first place. Iceland had gone through a crash which was not only economic, but also moral, political and social. A political elite had abused the democracy and institutions of Iceland. Icelanders have called for constitutional reform for decades but it has so far drowned in committees, assigned and arranged by the political parties themselves. The system of old was broken and finally after 2008, an opportunity to debate and enact necessary reform opened up.
So it was up to the Supreme Court to decide on the threesome’s complaints. To counter the threesomes’ argument they were presented with a precedent from previous elections where the result stood in spite of minor technicalities having gone wrong on the grounds that there was no evidence of malicious intent.
But the Supreme Court still ruled the election illegal. No constitutional congress. Skafti won, Odinn won, Thorgrimur won, David Oddson won and Hannes Holmsteinn Gissurarson won. Inga Lind Karlsdottir, the soft news television presenter who ran as a candidate aligned with the Independence Party and got in was immediately indignant in the media. Pressan.is owned by benefactors from the old system immediately questioned whether ministers should resign and debated the waste of money.
The supreme court ruling was performed by the following justices:
Arni Kolbeinsson and Jon Steinar Gunnlaugsson, both bridge partners of David Oddsson and Gardar Gislason, Gunnlaugur Claessen, Pall Hreinsson og Vidar Mar Matthiasson. All justices were appointed to the court in by justice ministers of the Independence Party during a period in Icelandic history which has been criticized harshly for corruption and bad governance, for example in the Special Investigation Report which Pall Hreinsson presented last year.
Constitutional reform is directed against the old system. The old system does not want reform.
Someone said in December 2008, “they will wreck havoc, and keep hold of their power and influence by any means necessary”.
It is indicative of the problems Iceland faces, that those responsible for the constitutional congress did not cover all their bases.
And using and abusing every little crook and nanny, legal or otherwise, Skafti Hardarson will inherit Iceland.
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Dadi
1 year ago
http://grapevine.is/News/ReadArticle/Constitutional-Assembly-Elections-Ruled-Invalid
The reasons for the ruling:
1. The ballots themselves were numbered. Conceivably, those who were handing out the ballots to voters could make a note of who had which numbered ballot, and be able to see later how that person voted. This is in violation of Icelandic law, which states that all voting must be secret.
2. There were no voting booths per se – an enclosed space with a curtain – but rather, desks separated by sheets of paper. This, the complaint alleges, could make it easy for people sitting next to each other to see how the other person was voting, which again violates Icelandic voter privacy laws.
3. It was not possible to change your voting district, as has been possible in previous elections.
4. Paper boxes were used instead of traditional ballot boxes. This could make ballot tampering, ballot stuffing, and ballot theft far easier to accomplish.
5. Voters were not allowed to fold their ballots in half. By regulations, folding the ballot is in fact required, in order to help voter privacy.
Iris Erlingsdottir
1 year ago
I’m so glad you’re writing again, Daði!