At stake in this election:

• The office of President of Iceland

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Olafur Ragnar GRIMSSON
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Geir HAARDE (15 June 2006 - 1 February 2009)
• Assembly: Iceland has a unicameral Parliament (Althing) with 63 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by plurality vote to serve a 4-year term.
• Prime Minister is appointed by the president with the approval of the parliament.
• In the Parliament (Althing), 54 members are elected through an open-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms and 9 members are elected by open list proportional representation in multi-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms.***

*** There are six multi-member districts. Each of nine compensatory seats is assigned by the election commission to corresponds to a multi-member district. These seats are awarded to parties from the same open lists in order to make the parties' overall seat shares proportional to their national vote shares. Parties must clear a 5 percent threshold to win these compensatory seats.

Main Candidates in the Presidential race:

• Ólafur Ragnar GRIMSSON
  • Party: Independent 

Note: GRIMSSON was re-elected unopposed. 

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 317,414 (2008)
• Registered Voters: 235,743 (June 2012 )

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 157,654 (2008)

·         Is Iceland a signatory to CEDAW: Yes (24 July 1980)

·         Has Iceland ratified CEDAW: Yes (18 June 1985)

·         Gender Quota: No

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 20 (following the 2007 elections)

·         Human Development Index Position: 16 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: N/A

Disability Data:

·         Is Iceland a signatory to CRPD: Yes (30 March 2007)

·         Has Iceland ratified CRPD: No

·         Population with a disability: 47,612 (est.)