Preparations for Iceland’s national referendum on the so-called Icesave law have begun at the Ministry of Justice and the City of Reykjavik. Absentee voting begins next Thursday.
It is expected the referendum will cost the Icelandic state around ISK 200 million (USD 1.6 million).
According to Hjalti Zophaniasson from the Ministry of Justice, absentee voting slips will begin to be sent out today to district commissioners, embassies and consulates for the beginning of voting on the 28th January.
Absentee voting slips will be similar to those used in Iceland on 6th March, except a different colour. The slips ask the question whether the December Icesave Bill passed by parliament should be written into law or not.
The City of Reykjavik’s Olafur Kr. Hjorleifsson told RUV that the preparations for the referendum are quite normal compared to elections, except for the short time allowed to prepare. He said his staff are busy trying to ensure voting stations will be free on 6th March and that there are enough people available to man them.
The news are starting to trickle out in Icelandic press, on who are the biggest bankruptcy claimants to the old Kaupthing bank (the deadline was December 30th last year).
Apparently, the biggest claim is from Deutsche Bank , which has around 900B ISK (5.0B EUR) total. The Tchenguiz brothers are also big with a 440B ISK (2.4B EUR) claim. The central bank in Iceland has a 356B ISK (2.0B EUR) claim, and Landsbanki has a 96B ISK (0.5B EUR) claim.
In all, there were 28167 claims totaling over 7300B ISK (40.6B EUR). The winding-up board has only reviewed about 16000 claims so far, so its not clear how many will actually be accepted in the end.
http://www.visir.is/article/201071721551
http://www.visir.is/article/2010987724025
http://www.visir.is/article/2010199799092
http://www.visir.is/article/2010727519917
The only solution to Iceland’s economic problem….
mathematically perfected economy™ (MPE™) 1 : the singular integral solution of 1) inflation and deflation, 2) systemic manipulation of the cost or value of money or property, and 3) inherent, artificial multiplication of debt into terminal systemic failure; 2 : every prospective debtor’s right to issue legitimate promises to pay, free of extrinsic manipulation, adulteration, or exploitation of those promises, or the natural opportunity to make good on them; 3 : our right to certify, to enforce, and to monetize industry and commerce by this one sustaining and truly economic process.
http://www.perfecteconomy.com/f/viewtopic.php?f=102&t=858&p=1726#p1726
For comparison, here is the newest report by the Kaupthing winding-up committee from October 2009:
http://www.kaupthing.com/lisalib/getfile.aspx?itemid=20838
According to this report the total assets 30th June, were 1706B ISK (9.5B EUR), and total liabilities were 4129B ISK (22.9B).
Clearly there is some mismatch between the total claims submitted 7300B ISK (40.6B EUR), and the Kaupthing balance sheet liabilities 4129B ISK (22.9B EUR). This will not be cleared up, until the winding-up board finishes their review of all the claims. Its already been reported, that some of the claims are probably not valid, for example when claiming for interest.
One more thing, apparently there were between 1300 and 1400 claims that arrived after the deadline (December 30th). Unfortunately those claimants will automatically loose their money. The claim period was open for 6 months, and you would have thought people would have the sense to send in their claims in on time.
http://www.ruv.is/heim/frettir/frett/store64/item322015/