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Elections will probably be held in Iceland on June 1 to elect the nation’s new president, who performs an necessary however symbolic function. The present president Guðni Jóhannesson has been in workplace since 2016, however had introduced at first of January that he wouldn’t search a 3rd time period: when the nominations had been opened, nevertheless, the quantity of people that got here ahead instantly gave the impression to be unusually excessive. , and reached 150. In earlier elections this quantity not often exceeded ten, and this brought about Icelandic journalists to contact among the candidates, asking them what their motives had been for changing into president: a lot of them, nevertheless, answered that they didn’t know that they had been president. candidates.
When he was re-elected in 2020, Jóhannesson had gained greater than 92 % of the vote. Already at the moment, operating for president in Iceland, an island of 382 thousand inhabitants, the method of making use of and amassing the required 1,500 signatures came about. on-line as a substitute of the physique, because it occurred earlier than. At the time, nevertheless, few folks needed to problem Jóhannesson, who was sure of re-election.
In this spherical, nevertheless, a number of younger folks, particularly Icelandic politicians, urged their voters to go to the signature web page, to get the required signatures to seem on the poll paper. Many, nevertheless, are confused and mistakenly register as candidates, considering they’re supporting another person, and begin their signature assortment.
Torbjorg Fridriksdottir, 59 years outdated and resort proprietor, he stated a Bloomberg that he discovered that he ran for workplace by mistake whereas on trip in Austria: «whereas I used to be sitting in a restaurant in Vienna, somebody from the nationwide broadcaster known as me as a result of I used to be operating for president. I used to be very shocked,” stated Fridriksdottir. “It was very troublesome for me. I did not have my glasses and clearly I opened my autograph assortment by mistake,” he added. Young folks did the identical, together with promoter Alda Coco.
Fridriksdottir is amongst practically 70 individuals who withdrew after discovering the error, however many signed up on objective, some as a joke, some as a result of they thought they may run legally due to the low variety of signatures wanted. In reality, the bulk didn’t accumulate the required signatures, and in the long run these are those who will seem on the poll on June 1. it will likely be solely 12, nonetheless the very best variety of candidates within the nation’s historical past. Among them are former prime ministers and college professors, but in addition mannequin and tv producer Ásdís Rán Gunnarsdóttir, Eiríkur fisherman Ingi Jóhannsson and comic and former mayor of Reykjavík Jón Gnarr.
Website designer Anna Andersen, whose aunt Helga is among the many individuals who signed up in hopes of reaching 1,500 signatures, it’s stated that the issue was attributable to the construction of the web page the place purposes had been registered, which was not clear in any respect. The web page was known as “Collecting signatures for 2024 presidential candidates” and was used each for in-person petitions and signatures to endorse the nomination of one other candidate.
The high half contained a really lengthy textual content explaining how one can register their software and it ended with a giant “Login” button. Scrolling down, nevertheless, there was an inventory of already registered candidates, every with a hyperlink to their signature assortment.
The “Sign In” button, Andersen writes, was the most important and most distinguished button on the web page, and lots of of those that had been directed to the positioning by potential sign-ups did not assume the web page had two capabilities. Furthermore, to signal an current petition and create a brand new one you needed to enter your ID card particulars and the procedures had been precisely the identical.
After the primary dozen requests, the Icelandic authorities division liable for managing the positioning modified the web page, added the phrase “Sign in” and the phrase “Create a login group”, and moved an inventory of open complaints to the highest of the web page. . Despite this, the case was taken up by many newspapers and several other continued to jot down, primarily as a result of it was really easy to take action.