Iceland is holding its national parliamentary election today; polling stations are open from 09.00 until 22.00 GMT. In total 227,896 people, over the age of 18, have the right to vote today. Read the full story

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The general parliamentary elections in Iceland are to be held on Saturday 25 April and seven political parties are fighting for the interest of voters –  of the seven, two are brand new. The parties are the Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn), Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin), Left-Green Movement (Vinstrihreyfingin – grænt framboð), Progressive Party (Framsóknarflokkurinn) and Liberal Party (Frjálslyndi flokkurinn).

The new parties, directly grown from the “Pots and Pans” revolution, are the Citizens’ Movement (Borgarahreyfingin) and the Democratic Movement (Lýðræðishreyfingin). Read the full story

Althingi, the Icelandic parliament, sat until 02.30 last night due to extended discussions over the bill on whether or not to call for a constitutional parliament.

A constitutional parliament is a committee made up of members of the public which makes changes to the country’s constitution. Almost every Icelandic citizen over 18 years old is eligible to stand for election to the constitutional parliament – the only exceptions being current MPs and the President. Read the full story

Iceland’s Social Democrats remain the most popular political party, according to the latest Capacent Gallup poll conducted for RUV and Morgunbladid. Read the full story

The newly built Reykjavik neighbourhood of Ulfarsardalur has suffered from the economic downturn. Despite great and ongoing investment in building and infrastructure, the area remains mostly deserted. The new estate is suffering because empty houses nearer to the city centre are more freely available and their prices much lower than a year ago. Read the full story

David Oddsson, former head of the Central Bank of Iceland (CBI), gave a controversial speech to the Independence Party conference on Saturday. In the speech Oddsson accused his replacement Svein Harald Oygard of either lying or suffering from a very serious case of Alzheimer’s disease. Read the full story

The national conferences of both the Independence and the Social Democratic parties are taking place this weekend and come at a critical time, less than a month before the general election. Read the full story

The Social democrats today voted for a new deputy leader at their national conference. The prominent Reykjavik councillor and former mayor Dagur B. Eggertsson won the spot with around two-thirds of the vote.

Dagur promised to re-invigorate ties between the Party and local governments; an area he feels the party has always cared greatly about, but which needs working on.

Johanna Sigurdardottir has been elected party leader of the Icelandic Social Democrats (Samfylkingin) with nearly all votes. Dagur B. Eggertsson will be her second in charge. He got over 65 percent of votes, beating Arni Pall Arnason.

Elections for the Independence party leadership (Sjálfstæðflokkurinn) will take place tomorrow.

These early party elections are in preperation for the Icelandic parliamentary elections due April 25th this year.

Geir H. Haarde, head of Iceland’s Independence Party and former Prime Minister marked his last appearance in parliament on Wednesday.

Haarde said that he will give up his party position on Sunday and would not be attending the final parliamentary sessions this week due to medical appointments abroad. Read the full story