The University of Akureyri Research Centre (RHA) has released a new poll which asked Akureyri residents who they would vote for if municipal elections were held today. Some results were unsurprising, but one party stood out as doing exceptionally well: Kattaframboðið, or the Cat Party.
398 people in all responded to the poll, which was conducted from April 25th through May 2nd. Of those, 31.3% were undecided, 7.4% did not want to answer, and 1.1% said they did not intend to vote.
Amongst the other voters, the Independence Party came out on top, with 16.7% saying they would vote for them if elections were held today. This was followed by 14.9% for the Social Democrats and 14.6% for L-listann (note: many municipalities will have a collection of candidates operating under a general alliance, L-listann being one of them). Each of these parties would win two seats on Akrueyri’s 11-seat town council.
At the same time, 13% said they would vote for the Progressives if elections were held today; 11.3% chose the People’s Party, 7.9% chose the Left-Greens, and 7.4% chose the Centre Party. Each of these parties would win one seat if elections were held today. The Pirate Party, coming in at 6.4%, would not win a seat.
However, Kattaframboðið is polling at 7.8%, and would also win a seat on town council. As reported, this is a newly-formed party, led by artist Snorri Ásmundsson, whose main platform point is to allow cats to be outdoors at any time of day or night.
While Akureyri originally sought to completely ban outdoor cats at the beginning of 2025, they have now settled for banning cats from being outside between midnight and seven in the morning, which is to go into effect at the start of 2023.
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