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".^[1] Bjarni subsequently called for a snap election,^[2] which was officially scheduled for 28 October 2017 following the dissolution of the Althing.

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2017 Icelandic parliamentary election

← 2016 28 October 2017 2021 →
All 63 seats in the Althing 32 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	81.20%
Party Leader % Seats +/– Independence Bjarni Benediktsson 25.25 16 −5 Left-Green Katrín Jakobsdóttir 16.89 11 +1 Social Democratic Logi Már Einarsson 12.05 7 +4 Centre Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson 10.89 7 New Progressive Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson 10.71 8 0 Pirates Collective leadership[n 1] 9.20 6 −4 People's Inga Sæland 6.88 4 +4 Reform Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir 6.69 4 −3 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Map of the election results, showing the seats won by each party in each of the 6 multi-member constituencies. Prime Minister before Prime Minister after election Bjarni Benediktsson Independence Katrín Jakobsdóttir Left-Green

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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.^[3] 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.

A three-party coalition of the Independence Party, Reform Party 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^[4] 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.^[5] 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.^[6]

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.^[5]

Bjarni acknowledged the need for new elections, although the decision is made by the President, Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson. Other parties supported new elections,^[6] although Birgitta Jónsdóttir, parliamentary chair of the Pirates, initially suggested a five-party coalition government of the Pirate Party, the Reform Party, 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.^[7]

According to a poll conducted by Morgunblaðið, 57% of Icelanders believed calling the snap election was right.^[8]

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.^{[citation needed]} She announced that she would not be standing in the election.^[9] After Birgitta announced that she was not standing, Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson announced that he would now be running to be an MP,^[10] having earlier quit due to what he described as bullying by Birgitta.^[11] 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.^[12]

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.^[13] The party's platform was broadly similar to that of its predecessor, but was characterised by observers in the media as being "populist",^[14] with a particular emphasis on reform of the banking sector and firms such as Íslandsbanki.^[15]

The 63 members of the Althing are elected using open list proportional representation in 6 multi-member constituencies.^[16] 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.^[16]

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

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. The Reform Party, 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.

• Ólafur Þ. Harðarson and Eva H. Önnudóttir. 2018. Election Report: Iceland. Scandinavian Political Studies.