1953 Icelandic parliamentary election

1953 Icelandic parliamentary election

28 June 1953
All 35 seats in the Lower House and 17 seats in the Upper House of Althing
Turnout	89.90%
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– Upper House Independence Ólafur Thors 37.12 7 +1 Progressive Hermann Jónasson 21.91 6 0 Socialist Einar Olgeirsson 16.05 2 −1 Social Democratic Hannibal Valdimarsson 15.62 2 0 Lower House Independence Ólafur Thors 37.12 14 +1 Progressive Hermann Jónasson 21.91 10 −1 Socialist Einar Olgeirsson 16.05 5 −1 Social Democratic Hannibal Valdimarsson 15.62 4 −1 National Preservation Gils Guðmundsson 6.03 2 New This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Prime Minister before Prime Minister after Steingrímur Steinþórsson Progressive Ólafur Thors Independence

Parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on 28 June 1953. The Independence Party remained the largest party in the Lower House of the Althing, winning 14 of the 35 seats.

Electoral system

The elections were conducted under rural–urban proportional representation. Twenty-one members were elected in single-member constituencies via first-past-the-post voting, while the remainder were elected using D'Hondt method proportional representation: twelve members in two-member constituencies, eight members in Reykjavík, and eleven from a single national compensatory list. To earn national list seats, a party had to win at least one constituency seat. In constituencies electing two or more members, within the party list, voters had the option to re-rank the candidates and could also strike a candidate out. Allocation of seats to candidates was done using a system based on the Borda count.

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats
				Lower House	+/–	Upper House	+/–
	Independence Party	28,738	37.12	14	+1	7	+1
	Progressive Party	16,959	21.91	10	–1	6	0
	People's Unity Party – Socialist Party	12,422	16.05	5	–1	2	–1
	Social Democratic Party	12,093	15.62	4	–1	2	0
	National Preservation Party	4,667	6.03	2	New	0	New
	Republican Party	2,531	3.27	0	New	0	New
Total		77,410	100.00	35	0	17	0
Valid votes		77,410	98.29
Invalid/blank votes		1,344	1.71
Total votes		78,754	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		87,601	89.90
Source: Nohlen & Stöver