Icelanders voted to stay out of the European Union, the national radio and television company (RUV) announced today, quoted by Reuters, BTA reported.
The agency notes that the islanders thus reject the government's pressure to renew membership negotiations.
The vote "against" will disappoint Brussels, as some of its representatives viewed Iceland as a low-risk country whose accession could help overcome skepticism about EU enlargement while also strategically strengthening the union at a time when security in the Arctic is increasingly important.
The exact and final official results have not been announced, but according to the latest interim results announced - based on 188,500 votes counted out of 270,000 eligible voters in the referendum - 52.5% are against the government's proposal to resume negotiations, while 47.5% support it. There was no information on voter turnout.
The government had framed its membership plan as a "now or never" one.
Pro-membership campaigners argued that joining the bloc could ease high interest rates and offer more security in a world destabilized by the war in Ukraine and U.S. President Donald Trump's rhetoric about annexing nearby Greenland.
The "no" camp argued that eventual EU membership would threaten the island's sovereignty and fishing waters.
The referendum campaign has reignited debates about Iceland's place in the world, Prime Minister Kristúrn Frostádóttir told reporters after casting her vote in the capital on Tuesday.