Iceland’s defiant president eyes record fifth term
REYKJAVIK, June 30 |
REYKJAVIK, June 30 (Reuters) – Iceland’s president Olafur
Grimsson looks set to win a record fifth term in office, riding
a wave of support for his defiance of Britain and the
Netherlands over massive debts from a bank crash, initial
election results showed on Saturday.
Grimsson, 69, who also opposes joining the European Union,
had led in recent opinion polls in the run-up to the elections,
ahead of Thora Arnorsdottir, 37, a local television journalist.
A first tally of 20 percent of the votes showed Grimsson
with 52.5 percent while Arnorsdottir, got 33.2 percent. The
Icelandic presidential election is a single round with the
candidate with the most votes winning a four-year term.
Grimsson’s key moments in office have been his vetoes of
bills approved by the centre-left government in parliament to
pay about $5 billion to compensate Britain and the Netherlands
after they bailed out local savers who had money frozen in
accounts in an Icelandic bank when it collapsed in 2008.
The vetoes angered the British and Dutch and trade body EFTA
has taken Iceland to court.
Still, the president’s decisions were overwhelmingly
approved by Icelanders in referendums and have boosted the
popularity of the former left-wing political strongman.
(Reporting by Omar Valdimarsson; writing by Niklas Pollard;
editing by Todd Eastham)
You can read the rest of this article at:: http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/06/30/iceland-election-idINL6E8HSFAM20120630
Short URL: http://thepresidency.us/?p=17820
Posted by RobertButler
on Jun 30 2012. Filed under 2012 Presidential Campaign.
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