Berlin (ANTARA) - The Icelandic public has rejected the proposal to\nreopen negotiations for European Union (EU) membership, according to\nreports from Icelandic public broadcaster RUV on Sunday, citing\nreferendum results that are nearing completion.<\/p>\n
Vote counting has concluded in all constituencies except for the\nSouthwest constituency, RUV reported, concluding that from that region,\n\u201cit appears there will not be enough support gathered to surpass the\nopposing votes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn that basis, it is clear that Iceland has decided to reject the\nresumption of the dialogue process for accession to the European Union,\u201d\nstated RUV.<\/p>\n
Preliminary percentages broadcast by national television show that\n52.5 per cent of voters rejected EU membership negotiations, with only\n47.5 per cent in favour, excluding the final constituency where counting\nis still underway.<\/p>\n
Nationally, 99,037 votes were cast for \u201cno\u201d, while 89,459 voted\n\u201cyes\u201d, resulting in a difference of 9,578 votes.<\/p>\n
It is noted that 32,000 ballots remain to be counted in the Southwest\nconstituency.<\/p>\n
For the \u201cyes\u201d option to win the referendum, at least 65 per cent of\nthe uncounted votes, or 57 per cent of the total votes in the Southwest\nconstituency, would need to vote \u201cyes\u201d.<\/p>\n
RUV assesses the likelihood of this occurring as very low.<\/p>\n
Icelandic citizens participated on Saturday in a highly contested\nreferendum to determine whether their country needs to restart the EU\naccession process after dialogue was frozen for more than 10 years.<\/p>\n
The referendum was not to determine Iceland\u2019s membership in the EU\ndirectly.<\/p>\n
If the \u201cyes\u201d option had won, the Icelandic government would have\nreceived a mandate to restart EU membership negotiations that have been\nsuspended for over a decade.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, even if negotiations successfully reached an agreement\nfor Iceland\u2019s accession to the EU, membership would still require a\nsecond referendum.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/majority-of-icelanders-reject-eu-membership-negotiation-proposal-1788094596", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }