2020 Icelandic presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Iceland on 27 June 2020.[1] Absentee voting opened on 25 May 2020.[2] Incumbent president Guðni Th. Jóhannesson was re-elected with 92% of the vote.

2020 Icelandic presidential election

25 May – 27 June 2020

Candidate Guðni Th. Jóhannesson Guðmundur Franklín Jónsson Party Independent Independent Popular vote 150,913 12,797 Percentage 92.2% 7.8%

President before election Guðni Th. Jóhannesson Independent Elected President Guðni Th. Jóhannesson Independent

Electoral system

The President of Iceland is elected by first-past-the-post voting,[3] with a simple plurality of votes needed to win.

Candidates

Incumbent president of Iceland Guðni Th. Jóhannesson announced in his new year's address on 1 January 2020 that he would seek re-election.[4]

Guðmundur Franklín Jónsson, a businessman and activist, announced that he would run for the office of president in a Facebook-live video on 22 April.[5]

Several other persons announced their interest in running for the office, inluding Axel Pétur Axelsson, a self described social engineer and noted conspiracy theorist, who was quoted as saying that his first matter of business as president would be to dismiss all members of the Icelandic government.[6] Only the incumbent president Guðni Th. Jóhannesson and challenger Guðmundur Franklín Jónsson gathered the required number of signatures to get on the ballot.[7]

Preliminary results

As of 28 June 2020, with initial results incoming, President Guðni Th. Jóhannesson appears assured of reelection in a landslide victory.[8]

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Guðni Th. Jóhannesson	Independent	150,913	92.18
	Guðmundur Franklín Jónsson	Independent	12,797	7.82
Invalid/blank votes			5,111	–
Total			168,821	100
Registered voters/turnout			252,267	66.92
Source: RUV, MBL

References

1. Republic of Iceland: Election for President 2020 IFES
2. Absentee Voting for President Starts Monday
3. Republic of Iceland: Election for President 2016 IFES
4. Ruv.is - Guðni gefur kost á sér til endurkjörs RÚV, 1 January 2020
5. Vísir - Guðmundur Franklín Jónsson býður sig fram til forseta Vísir, 23 April 2020
6. Axel Pétur í forsetaframboð: Fyrsta verk að reka alla ríkisstjórnina Fréttablaðið, 9 April 2020
7. Tveir frambjóðendur hafa skilað meðmælum í öllum kjördæmum Visir.is, 20 May 2020
8. "RUV (Icelandic television)". X20. Retrieved 28 June 2020.