Faroese general election, 2008

Faroese general election, 2008

19 January 2008
All 33 seats in the Løgting 17 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   150x150px Leader Høgni Hoydal Kaj Leo Johannesen Jørgen Niclasen Party Republic Union People's Last election 8 seats, 21.7% 7 seats, 23.7% 7 seats, 20.6% Seats won 8 7 7 Seat change 0 0 0 Popular vote 7,250 6,529 6,240 Percentage 23.3% 21.0% 20.1%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   150x150px 150x150px Leader Jóannes Eidesgaard Jenis av Rana Kári P. Højgaard Party Social Democratic Centre Self-Government Last election 7 seats, 21.8% 2 seats, 5.2% 1 seats, 4.6% Seats won 6 3 2 Seat change 1 1 1 Popular vote 6,018 2,610 2,244 Percentage 19.3% 8.4% 7.2%
Prime Minister before election Jóannes Eidesgaard Social Democratic Prime Minister Jóannes Eidesgaard Social Democratic

Parliamentary elections were held in the Faroe Islands on 19 January 2008, the latest possible date. The Self-Government Party and the Centre Party gained a seat each while the Social Democratic Party lost a seat. The number of women went from three to seven.

It had been considered to amend the election law to hold the election two weeks later to pass a number of important bills before the election, but in the end the negotiations on this failed and the election was called on 2007-12-07. Prior to this election, the electoral system was changed in 2007 from a constituency-based d'Hondt proportional representation (with seven multi-member constituencies), which had some elements of mixed member proportional voting, to a nationwide d'Hondt based proportional system to reduce disproportionality.

Prior to the election, the Social Democratic Party formed a centrist unionist government with the People's Party and the Union Party. After the elections, four days of negotiations saw a centre-left separatist government emerge; while the Social Democratic Party retained the PM's post, the strongly pro-independence Republic got the majority of ministerial posts (including the newly created post of foreign minister). The Centre Party also participated in the new government. Among the coalition agreement points was a plan to draft a constitution for the Faroe Islands, which would be approved in a referendum to be held in 2010.

The coalition broke up in mid-2008, however, and a government consisting of the parties governing before the 2008 election was sworn in on 26 September 2008, with Kaj Leo Johannesen as PM instead.

Results

 Summary of the results of the election to the Faroese Løgting
held on 19 January 2008

Parties		Votes	%	Seats
	Republic (Tjóðveldi)	7,250	23.3	8
	Union Party (Sambandsflokkurin)	6,529	21.0	7
	People's Party (Fólkaflokkurin)	6,240	20.1	7
	Social Democratic Party (Javnaðarflokkurin)	6,018	19.3	6
	Centre Party (Miðflokkurin)	2,610	8.4	3
	Self-Government Party (Sjálvstýrisflokkurin)	2,244	7.2	2
	Students' Party (Miðnámsflokkurin)	221	0.7	0
Totals (electorate 34,845 : turnout 89.7% )		31,112	100.0	33
Source: logting.elektron.fo (turnout includes invalid votes; other figures exclude invalid votes)

See also

• List of members of the Løgting, 2008–2011