Parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on 10 September 1908, alongside a referendum on prohibition.^[1]

The Althing was dissolved by King Frederik VIII in the early spring in order to elect a new parliament that would vote on a draft status law that would define the position of Iceland in the Danish realm.^[2] The election campaign was one of the acrimonious in Icelandic political history due to the controversial nature of the draft.^[2] The opposition was led by Skúli Thoroddsen, a member of the Independence Party.^[3]

The 36 members of the Althing were elected from a mix of single-member and two-member constituencies.^[4] The elections were the first to take place since changes to the electoral system in 1904; they were the first to be held using the secret ballot,^[5] and also saw the three-round majoritarian system replaced by plurality voting as multiple rounds of voting on the same day were no longer possible.^[4] The tax qualification for voting was also reduced, increasing the proportion of people able to vote to around 14% of the population,^[4] up from 7,786 in 1903 to 11,726.^[6]

Candidates opposed to the draft law won a landslide majority, whilst voter turnout was 72.4%, nearly 20% more than the 1903 elections.^[6] As a result, the law was voted down in 1909,^[2] resulting in the resignation of Minister for Iceland Hannes Hafstein.^[3]