Bjorgvin G. Sigurdsson, Icelandic Social Democrat MP, intends to submit a bill to parliament which would see the country changed from six parliamentary voting districts into just one.
Sigurdsson told Bylgjan Radio that he has written a draft bill and sent it to the leaders of all the parties represented in the Althingi parliament.
He said he also expects to find support for the bill outside parliament. The proposed legislation is built on a previous bill put forward by Hedinn Valdimarsson in the 30s and another by Gudmundur Arni Stefansson a few years ago.
Under Iceland’s current proportional representation rules, each party prepares a list of candidates in each region who will be elected to parliament if enough people vote for them. The seats in Althingi are split up between the regions.
Under the new plan, each party would prepare just one national list which everybody would vote on. Under the Icelandic system, every vote counts because votes are cast for parties and not candidates, so winning parties get more of their listed candidates elected than losing parties.
The new bill would give every voter in Iceland an equal chance to vote for every seat in parliament, meaning that everybody making laws in Althingi would be mandated by every voter. Critics of the plan fear, however, that candidates would focus their policies and campaigning on more populated areas at the expense of voters in the countryside.
The first step towards communism.
Ha yeah. communism. that worked out so well. that is so 1978.. First step for more representation! We all gotta vote the kreppa!
This is step to the totalitarian system. Iceland goes where Eastern Europe comes from.
This issue has nothing to do with communism. Do you know what communism is?
AS – I would hazard a guess that it’s a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general.
Of course, because that’s working marvellously for Israel.
“This is step to the totalitarian system. ”
Indeed.
At the moment is a coin with two faces, same coin but at least two sides. That bill is just a single icon coin.
We are heading to a VERY bad black hole, as many other countries are doing.
The nation needs to pay attention and read between the lines, also do some homework.
>Of course, because that’s working marvellously for Israel.
Hardly a good example. First we take a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general.
Then we surround it with people who want to kill 75% of the population.
>This is step to the totalitarian system
Can someone explain how anything that reinforces 1 person, 1 vote, is totalitarian?
Sure, it transfers power from the country to the city, but that was an unequal situation to start with. Not that I necessarily agree with mob rule, but you need to be able to justify why someone from Reykjavik elects a smaller percentage of the Althingi than someone from the boonies.
I see the thinking… The solution to Iceland’s current economic problems is anarcho-capitalism. No, wait a minute, that was Iceland’s economic philosophy before the crash. Okay, if that didn’t work, let’s try changing the voting rules instead. Not sure whether they would be better or worse, but they would be different. And it’s the job of democratically-elected politicians to change things, so the new rules must be a good thing for democracy.
I want to vote for a specific person, not for a party of people.
In the political parties there is alot of “dead weight”. Each party has at least a few members that are there because they are family or friends of family. You can “line them out” but that seldom actually happens. So, these representatives go to the althingi and do nothing but vote as they are told to by the party leaders.
Let me vote for a single person to represent my specific district, so that I later I can ask my specific representative to the althing why they voted the way they did. Then and only then will you have “one man, one vote”. Because to me that statement means that the elected one has to answer directly to me the voter. If he does not represent the people in his district in accordance with their “majority” wishes, then a form of impeachment needs to be followed to replace him with a true “representative” of the district.
You make a good point, Tim66 – but on the other hand, it means that the majority of voters have no say at all.
Under the system you propose, if I didn’t vote for the MP that gets elected for my area, I have to trust them anyway. Under the Icelandic (and many other) systems, whoever I vote for is probably going to get at least someone in to represent me and my vote.
Balkanson write :
>This is step to the totalitarian system. Iceland goes where Eastern Europe comes from.
The Social Democrat are the most un-Icelandic and most pro-centralization pro-state power ( which is why they love the EU ), pro-force everyone down to same level group in Icelandic society.
As I have state many times they do not represent the majority of Icelandic people at all in any way.
Why Steingrímur J and more important the MPs in his party do put power before they principals I do not know.
Left-Greens and Independence Party is more of match than Social Democrats and Left-Green.
It is clear that Social Democrats view Left-Greens as useful idiots. And they are acting as them for sure ever since they got into bed with them in February 2009.
Tim66 wrote :
>I want to vote for a specific person, not for a party of people.
Exactly what most people feel. The party system forms because it is seen to be stable but in the modern times the ideaand structing of represenative democracy is less valid than it was before.
If we look to the Swiss system we find the future of democratic systems where there is hardly any centralized power and lot of referndums which gets less expensive now because of the information technology including Internet.
Aggi says :
>The nation needs to pay attention and read between the lines, also do some homework.
Yes and they need some polemicist to bring govenrment to account and more miportantly to analyze matters. Thank the gods for bloggers.
But also this is a reason I am less worried at all about the future of Moggin ( Morgunblaðið ) as Davið is in the right place at right time.
Jim said :
>The solution to Iceland’s current economic problems is anarcho-capitalism. No, wait a minute, that was Iceland’s economic philosophy before the crash.
It is Icelander’s long term view of how things should be organized. Right from the days of settlement in the 900s. And it is today.
No centralized power. As few political power centers as can be.
Social Democrats represent the exact opposite.