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Sunday 05.02.2012

A "no" to Icesave deal

Icelanders were asked to vote March 6 on whether the country should honour an agreement to repay Britain and the Netherlands 3.9 billion euros (5.3 billion dollars) by 2024.

Icelanders on Saturday massively rejected a deal to pay Britain and the Netherlands billions for losses in the collapse of the Icesave bank, the government said after partial referendum results, AFP reports.



"Initial figures indicate clearly that the December amendment to the Icesave legislation of August 2009 will be repealed," the government said in a statement just minutes after polling stations closed at 2200 GMT.

Some 93.6 per cent of voters cast ballots opposing the deal, partial results showed after 50 per cent of ballots were counted, said RUV public broadcaster which compiles all electoral statistics.

Only 1.5 per cent of voters had so far voted "yes" to the Icesave deal.

It remained unclear how many of Iceland's 230,000 eligible voters had cast their ballots Saturday, but an hour before polls closed the turnout rate stood at 54.45 percent, according to RUV.

Icelanders were asked to vote on whether the country should honour an agreement to repay Britain and the Netherlands 3.9 billion euros (5.3 billion dollars) by 2024.

This would be to compensate them for money they paid to 340,000 of their citizens hit by the collapse of Icesave in 2008.

Before Saturday's plebiscite, observers cautioned that a "no" to the Icesave bill might result in International Monetary Fund blocking the remaining half of a 2.1-billion dollar rescue package.

It could also hit European Union and euro currency membership talks, Iceland's credit rating and destabilise the leftwing government, which negotiated the agreement in the first place, they argued.

"This is nothing that comes as a surprise," Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir told public broadcaster RUV late Saturday.

For many Icelanders, handing what they consider an exorbitant price to London is especially infuriating.

Many here still resent the 1970s "cod wars" with London over fishing rights, and over Britain's 2008 decision to use an anti-terrorism law to freeze British savers' assets in the stricken Icelandic bank Landsbanki.