Pirates face rough seas as incumbents lead in Iceland vote
REYKJAVIK, Iceland — Iceland looked likely to steer away from a Pirate takeover Sunday, as voters favoured the incumbent Independence Party over the upstart band of buccaneers advocating direct democracy and Internet freedom.
With roughly half of votes counted from Saturday’s election, the Independence Party had about 30 per cent of ballots and the Pirate Party about 14 per cent, putting them in third place behind the Left-Green movement.
It’s a worse result for the Pirates than some polls suggested, and a better performance than predicted for the Independents, who have governed in coalition since 2013.
Coalition governments are the norm in Iceland’s multi-party system. It was not immediately clear whether the Independents would be able to assemble a coalition with other centrist and right-wing parties — or whether the Pirates and other opposition forces would get the numbers to govern.