Iceland's center-left Social Democratic Alliance looks set to win the most votes after early elections parliamentary elections in the country, which took place on Saturday, reported Reuters, quoted by BTA.
The polling stations closed as scheduled at 10 p.m. GMT despite snow storms in the north and east of Iceland. However, bad weather may delay the announcement of the final results, expected on Sunday morning, public broadcaster RUV reported.
Polls even before the election showed that the ruling coalition of the left-wing Green Movement, the conservative Independence Party and the center-right Progressive Party, which has been in power for the past seven years, was likely to lose power.
According to preliminary results, the Social Democratic Alliance, which was last in power in the period 2009-2013, will be the first force with more than 20 percent of the vote.
In second place after a late mobilization of support is likely to be Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson's Independence Party with more than 18 percent.
The center-right Liberal Reform Party follows at a narrow distance with just under 18 percent, preliminary results cited by RUV show.
„We have had the same coalition for seven years and it seems there is a desire for new people in the government,” Stefania Oskarsdottir, a political scientist at the University of Iceland, said in an interview earlier this week.
In April, Katrin Jakobsdóttir of the Left Green Movement resigned as prime minister to run for president, but lost. Her deputy, Bjarni Benediksson of the Independence Party, in October dissolved parliament and called an election after escalating coalition divisions and public discontent over migration and energy and housing issues.