Icelanders began voting today in a referendum that is shaping up to be highly contested on whether to resume EU accession talks, 13 years after they were suspended, Agence France-Presse reported, BTA reported.
Polls show the two camps side by side, with the latest Gallup survey giving 51.6% support to opponents of the talks, against 48.4% to their supporters - a difference considered statistically insignificant.
Amid the financial crisis that had devastated the country's economy, the island of nearly 400,000 inhabitants applied for EU membership in 2009, but negotiations were frozen in 2013 with the coming to power of a eurosceptic government.
"Very contested, but I remain optimistic," Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir, a leading figure among supporters of the talks, said on Wednesday. "Nothing is decided until it is over."
Around 273,000 voters are invited to answer the following question: "Should Iceland resume negotiations on joining the European Union?"
Given the lack of an exit poll, the first reliable results are expected late tonight.
Even if negotiations are resumed, a second referendum on membership itself would be necessary. The issue of fishing, one of the pillars of the national economy over which Reykjavik wants to retain exclusive control, is likely to be one of the main points of tension, despite Brussels' expressed willingness to seek "creative solutions".