Little Change In Party Support, High Voter Dissatisfaction

Two separate polls show little change in party support, although large numbers of voters are either undecided or dissatisfied with any of their options.

Two polls have recently measured levels of support for the different political parties in parliament; one from Gallup (G) and one from Fréttablaðið (F). Their results are comparable, and while they show little change in support for different parties since the last poll, they also show a significant level of voter dissatisfaction.

The Independence Party is the party with the greatest level of support in the country, at 28% (G) and about 31% (F). Both polls show the Progressives at 12%. Support for the ruling coalition overall, Gallup reports, is at 42%.

Where other parties are concerned, the Social Democrats came in at 19% (G) and 20% (F); Bright Future at 15% (G) and 14.1% (F); the Left-Greens at 12% (both G and F) and the Pirates polled at 6% (G) and 9% (F).

However, the largest block belonged to those who were either undecided, would submit blank ballots if elections were held today, or would not vote at all.

According to the Fréttablaðið poll, 23% of respondents said they were undecided, 15% said they would not vote or would submit a blank ballot, and 13% would not respond to the poll at all. Solely those undecided or dissatisfied comprise a larger block of voters than the Independence Party alone.

The results were slightly less dramatic for the Gallup poll, but still significant: 11% said they either would not vote or would submit blank ballots, while 10% would not respond. Both polls, however, showed a low level of participation, at 64% (F) and 57.7% (G).