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Iceland Holds Early Elections

by VOA News

   Voters in Iceland are going to the polls Saturday for parliamentary
   elections.

   Analysts say the anti-establishment Pirates Party will likely form a
   new center-left coalition.

   The incumbent government is expected to receive a drubbing, following
   the 2008 financial crisis and this year's international tax scandal
   revealed in the Panama Papers. Large anti-government protests after the
   release of the Panama Papers forced Prime Minister Sigmundur David
   Gunnlaugsson to resign. Several politicians were named in the tax fraud
   case.

   Although the current government of the conservative Independence Party
   and the centrist Progressive Party survived the scandal, it
   nevertheless promised an early vote in October instead of next April.

   The country's young people seem attracted to the Pirates, which
   campaigns for public transparency, institutional reform, individual
   freedoms and the fight against corruption.

   Voting results are expected shortly after the polls close, but no party
   is expected to win a majority. The ruling government will be determined
   after coalition negotiations.