Over 13,000 Icelanders cast early votes in referendum on EU accession talks

More than 13,000 Icelanders have cast early ballots in a referendum on whether the country should resume accession negotiations with the EU, local media reported Friday.

Some 13,187 early votes had been cast as of Thursday evening, including 8,524 in the capital region, according to public broadcaster RUV.

Iceland has 272,690 registered voters, meaning slightly more than 4.8% of the electorate has already participated since early voting began on July 27.

“I have the feeling that this is a fairly high proportion,” said Astridur Johannesdottir, managing director of Iceland’s National Electoral Commission.

“But of course it is difficult to compare this with previous elections, both because the early voting period is slightly longer than usual – normally it is 29 days – and because we perhaps do not have another recent referendum to compare it with,” she added.

In the capital region, 6.3% of eligible voters have cast their ballots.

Reykjavik has 95,691 registered voters, while the southwest constituency, covering other municipalities in the capital region, has 39,626.

Icelandic citizens aged 18 or older who are legally domiciled in the country are eligible to vote. Citizens living abroad generally retain their voting rights for 16 years after moving their legal residence from Iceland.

Foreign nationals are not eligible to participate in the referendum.