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Iceland's Pirate Party Tops Polls Ahead of National Elections

posted by janrinok on Thursday October 27 2016, @06:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the they-had-a-dream dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

The Pirate Party looks set for a successful outing in the coming weekend's Icelandic elections.

A poll by local newspaper Morgunblaðið and the Icelandic Social Science Research Institute of the University of Iceland reports support for the Pirate Party is running at about 22.6 per cent, a point-and-a-half ahead of the ruling Independence Party and four points clear of the Left-Greens. That's impressive support, although the party's support has fallen a couple of points since March 2015.

Iceland uses s proportional representation system so the party's current level of support will likely translate into about 15 seats in the 63-member Althingi.

That won't be not enough for Píratar, the party's Icelandic name, to take government. It's also ruled out a coalition with the Independence Party.

But earlier this year Independence split and the recently-formed splinter group Viðreisn (tr. "Regeneration") is polling at 8.8 per cent and has ruled out joining a government with any of the current coalition parties. If the Pirates can align with Viðreisn and other like-minded parties it may therefore become part of a governing coalition and win some ministries.

Four years for a party founded by geeks to take over the government is not bad.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 27 2016, @04:26PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 27 2016, @04:26PM (#419462)

    I'll tackle the last two.

    Free Media: Easy fix, government run video service. Political messages and advertisements are ONLY allowed on the gov site or their own personal sites. No paying for ads elsewhere. Such a service would not cost that much overall, and the infrastructure could also support other gov activities as well.

    Korporations: Reverse their legal status as persons. It is beyond ridiculous to consider them as persons and it is about the least democratic thing we have going. The corps don't represent their employees in the slightest, they are heavy hitters representing the interests of the CEOs and board members. I'm sure those interests will often benefit employees with higher chances of remaining employed instead of the company going bankrupt, but that's about it.

  • (Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Thursday October 27 2016, @10:11PM

    by art guerrilla (3082) on Thursday October 27 2016, @10:11PM (#419591)

    thanks to those pitching in to answer, and i will add one more factor here:
    the so-called PUBLIC AIRWAVES (and similar 'monopolies' on using right-of-ways to run cable/FIOS/etc) were LEASED to the various broadcast korporations with a REAL expectation that they ALSO PROVIDE A PUBLIC SERVICE...
    that is part of the reason why we have 'public svc announcements', c-spam, etc; THAT is *part* of the pitiful end of the deal we get for letting them make zillions off of OUR AIRWAVES...
    i don't think it is asking too much to have a certain amount/blocks of free airtime for candidates every 2-4 years, do you ? ? ?