‘Pirates’ alliance wins majority in Iceland snap vote: poll
Ruling coalition may be unseated in elections sparked by Panama Papers revelations of leaders’ use of tax havens
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REYKJAVIK, Iceland – Iceland’s Pirate Party-led alliance on Saturday narrowly won a parliamentary majority in a snap election prompted by the Panama Papers tax-dodging scandal in April, according to a TV exit poll.
In the latest in a global movement against mainstream politics, the “Pirates” became the second largest party with 12 members in the 63-seat parliament, according to the RUV state television predictions.
Founded by activists in 2012, the Pirates were set, for the first time, to form a coalition with three other leftist and centrist opposition parties, including the Left-Greens, the Social Democrats and the Bright Future Movement.
The alliance claimed a total of 32 seats in the Icelandic parliament, Althingi, with the Left-Green movement winning 11 seats, the Social Democrats garnering five and centrist Bright Movement with four seats, according to RUV.
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The election was triggered after former prime minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson resigned in April, the first major public figure to fall from grace over the Panama Papers, which revealed that 600 Icelanders including cabinet ministers, bankers and business leaders had holdings stashed away in tax havens.
The outgoing center-right coalition of the Independence Party and the Progress Party, which governed the island nation from 2013 up until now, only gained 25 seats, according to RUV.
The Times of Israel Community.