With four months until the presidential elections there are still only a few clear candidates to rally around but about twenty people have either announced running or have been repeatedly said to be running in the media.
A few are strongly encouraged to run and enjoy support by groups of people promoting them.
Five people have clearly announced or strongly suggested running:
Ari Jósepsson, video blogger
Ástþór Magnússon, entrepreneur
Elísabet Jökulsdóttir, writer
Hildur Þórðardóttir, ethnographer
Þorgrímur Þráinsson, writer
A few more have said in the media that they are considering running:
Andri Snær Magnason writer
Halla Tómasdóttir entrepreneur
Hrannar Pétursson, formerly CEO of Vodafone
Linda Pétursdóttir entrepreneur, formerly Miss World (1988)
Salvör Nordal, chairwoman of the Centre for Ethics at the University of Iceland
Sigrún Stefánsdóttir, chairman of humanities and social science at the University of Akureyri
Stefán Jón Hafstein, intendant of Iceland’s developing cooperation in Uganda
Sturla Jónsson, truckdriver
Vigfús Bjarni Albertsson, Hospital priest
Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, politician, currently head of SA-Business in Iceland and formerly vice-chairman of the Independence Party
And a few more have been strongly suggested and encouraged to run, for example Katrín Jakobsdóttir, the leader of the Left-Green Movement and formerly Iceland’s Minister of Education, Science and Culture, enjoys the most support in surveys and polls. Össur Skarphéðinsson, former Minister of Foreign Affairs comes second and Bergþór Pálsson singer and Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson, writer and assistant CEO of Time Warner, have also been mentioned, none of them have confirmed.
The above list was compiled and published by the National Broadcasting Service and is not conclusive.
The President of Iceland is the country´s head of state and the only representative chosen by the entire electorate in a direct election. The office of President was established in the Constitution of the Republic of Iceland which took effect on 17 June 17 1944. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson is the fifth President of the Republic and he has been served as president for five terms. He announced in his New Year address that he would not be running for the sixth term.