From Iceland — E-Democracy Underway In Reykjavík

E-Democracy Underway In Reykjavík

Published March 12, 2014

Online voting is now underway for numerous projects in the capital, all proposed by Reykjavík residents. Voting is done in both Icelandic and English, and all Reykjavík residents may vote.

The election encourages residents to explore the projects that were submitted by capital area residents last November. Over 400 neighbourhood projects were submitted, and the total budget for all possible projects is 300 million ISK.

Voting on these projects is now open, as explained in the guidelines of the election:

Citizens of Reykjavík can vote on the projects online from 00:01 on Tuesday March 11 until 04:00 in the morning of Wednesday March 19 on a website made specially for the occasion. Citizens can vote in a borough of own choice, regardless of where in the city they live, but only in one borough. Voting is limited to those born 1997 or earlier and who are legal residents in Reykjavík on the day they vote. The result is binding.

Voters can vote for up to 20 projects within a single neighbourhood, unless the projects chosen reach the maximum budget for that neighbourhood before 20 in total are reached.

As a part of the voting’s promotional campaign, Mayor Jón Gnarr has reprised a version of a popular character of his from the now-retired Icelandic sketch comedy show, Fóstbræður, in a series of videos – one of which you can see below (in Icelandic, but the basic gist is Gnarr explains that city residents can influence their city through the internet, to which “Þrándur” argues that some computers do not come with any “internet” installed.)

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