governmentReykjavik, Oct 29 (AFP) Iceland's conservative primeminister came out on top in a snap election despite a stringof scandals, final results confirmed Sunday, but it remainedunclear whether he will be able to form a viable coalition.
PM Bjarni Benediktsson, 47, was accused named last yearin the "Panama Papers" worldwide tax-evasion leaks. He hasalso been accused of wrongdoing during Iceland's financialcollapse in 2008.
His Independence Party, however, beat its rivals inyesterday's election, according to final results publishedtoday, although no party came near to winning a majority inparliament.
The Independence Party won 16 seats in the 63-seatparliament. Turnout was 81 per cent.
It could now take days, weeks or even months beforeIceland has a new government in place as thorny coalitionnegotiations await.
Benediktsson's challenge comes from the Left GreenMovement and its potential allies, the Social DemocraticAlliance and the anti-establishment Pirate Party.
The Left-Green Movement came in second with 11 seats, theSocial Democratic Alliance with seven seats, and the Pirateswith six seats.
A total of eight parties won seats in parliament.
Iceland's President Gudni Johannesson has invited theleader of each of those parties to his residence tomorrow.
After meeting them individually, he will decide who getsthe first mandate to try to assemble a government.
Under the Icelandic system, the president, who holds alargely ceremonial role, usually tasks the leader of thebiggest party with putting a government together.
"I am optimistic that we can form a government,"Benediktsson told AFP after the polls closed yesterday.
The Independence Party lost five seats in parliament,according to todays results, but still came out on top --apparently helped by Iceland's thriving economy, fuelled by aflourishing tourism sector.
The party has been involved in almost every government inIceland since 1980.
But growing public distrust of the elite has spawnedseveral anti-establishment parties.
These have splintered the political landscape and made itincreasingly difficult to form a stable government.
Benediktsson's main rival, the Left-Green Movement wonfewer votes than expected.
It will need at least five allies to form a 32-seatmajority to dethrone the conservatives.
If it manages to do so, it would form only the secondleft-leaning government in Iceland since the country'sproclamation as a republic in 1944.
"I'm worried that we may have to face up to thelikelihood of long, drawn-out discussions and attempts to forma government," Arnar Thor Jonsson, a law professor atReykjavik University, told AFP.
Negotiations to form a coalition after the October 2016election took three months.
Some voters are tired. It was Iceland's fourth electionsince 2008 and the second in a year.
"I hope we will have more stable politics now... but I'mrather pessimistic about it," Einar Orn Thorlacius, a lawyerin Reykjavik, told AFP. (AFP)DPB.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.
