From Iceland — The Cost Of Politics

The Cost Of Politics

Published March 5, 2013

The Icelandic National Audit Office has released details of how much candidates spent on their campaigns for primary elections this past fall.
Illugi Gunnarsson was the big spender of Independence Party candidates, dropping 4.9 million ISK on the campaign, Vísir reports. Árni Páll Árnason spent the most of the Social Democrats, with a 763 thousand ISK bill for his campaign.
Kári Stefánsson, CEO of deCode Genetics, donated 400,000 ISK to Illugi, and upward of 1.4 million ISK was donated by various fisheries, including HB Grandi, one of Iceland’s largest fisheries; and Samherji, a company belonging to an owner of Morgunblaðið newspaper.
Of the 10 Independence Party candidates included on the Audit Office’s report six spent upward of 1.14 million ISK, with the remaining 4 candidates spending between 152,000 and 506,000 ISK. Comparatively, candidates for the Social Democratic Alliance spent between 424,000 and 763,000 ISK.

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