Words by

grapevine

Tomorrow, Icelanders will get to cast their vote for or against six details proposed for a new constitution being drafted by a government committee.
Iceland’s original constitution is more or less borrowed from the Danes. In the wake of the 2008 economic collapse, a public outcry to change the very structure of Iceland’s socio-political system led to an initiative to write a new constitution. The committee – comprised of 25 men and women from around Iceland, and appointed by the Prime Minister for the task – have for the past few months been working on writing a new constitution for Iceland.
During this time, the committee has been posting their progress on a website, inviting comments from the general public on what changes they would like to see, or what changes the public would like made to new constitutional articles that the committee has drafted.
Tomorrow, six details regarding the constitutional draft will be put up for public referendum. A sample ballot details the questions as the following:
1. Do you wish the Constitution Council’s proposals to form the basis of a new draft Constitution?
2. In the new Constitution, do you want natural resources that are not privately owned to be declared national property?
3. Would you like to see provisions in the new Constitution on an established (national) church in Iceland?
4. Would you like to see a provision in the new Constitution authorising the election of particular individuals to the Althingi more than is the case at present?
5. Would you like to see a provision in the new Constitution giving equal weight to votes cast in all parts of the country?
6. Would you like to see a provision in the new Constitution stating that a certain proportion of the electorate is able to demand that issues are put to a referendum?
The referendum is already proving popular, as over 10,000 people have already cast their votes.
For more information on the referendum, visit the Ministry of the Interior’s English page. Only Icelandic citizens can vote in this referendum. Grapevine encourages all those who can vote in this historic referendum to do so.