As the Pirate numbers fell, Birgitta spoke on RU'V, the National Broadcasting system that was airing the election live. Through our Icelandic interpreters, Birgitta discussed a technicality in Icelandic voting. A party has to have 5% of the vote in order to qualify for a seat in Parliament.
Birgitta explained that the 5% threshold is too high for a candidate to qualify for a seat in Parliament. This is a bad law, technicality that does not reflect the will of the people. With the new People's Constitution, this 5% threshold would have been dropped to 2%, giving more people the chance to have a hand in good governing.
As Icelander Pa'll Heimer Einarsson explains, "Birgitta Jonsdottir wants the new government to work at some changes to the constitution regarding an increase in the elements that can make democracy work better in the parliament. The 5% threshold rule means that up to 20% of the votes for the new (small) parties will not have any influence on Parliament at all. This is intolerable in a democracy, in my opinion, but this point of view is shared by many."
"I'm quite sure we crush it the final few meters," says Birgitta Jà nsdà ttir. Pirate Party had four seats early on, but suddenly had no MP seats because of the notorious 5 percent threshold. "If we can not get one seat, then it's a sad testimony to this five percent rule," Birgitta added. She hope young people will come out and vote. The Pirate Party is strongly favored by 10% of Iceland's voting population under the age of 30.
By 5 am the voting results were not clear for this cutting edge, technologically advanced party that could bring the most creative and cutting edge technology to Iceland, with a focus on freedom and transparency. In these small hours the party had 5.3 % of the vote, with 71.9% of the votes counted. RU'V the state broadcasting system, had gone off the air. All but a few die hard Pirates sat on the edge of their seats, knowing this was going to be close, right down to the wire. We had all had a bonding experience, these good Icelanders and their foreign friends. There was so much at stake- the hope for a new, free Iceland, haven to truth tellers, whistleblowers and freedom of information; hope for countries like the US, Cyprus, Greece and Spain, countries that really need Iceland to overcome corruption with the power of the people, so that we might feel like we could do it too.
By 7 am, still reporting both conflicting and convoluted information about "floating seats" and the like, it seems that the Pirate Party has indeed won a victory. Preliminary reports, with 95% of the votes counted, show the PP with three seats in Parliament. It looks like those three will be Birgitta Jonsdottir, Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson and Jon Thor Olafsson. There is hope for Iceland if this is the result. There is hope for the voice of the people to be amplified by ratifying their own constitution, and there is hope for a safe haven for truth and transparency in the world.
That is what all of us were gathering for tonight; just a bit of hope for safe haven, a beacon of light shining on a small Island in the northern Atlantic Ocean.
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