No-confidence vote for the government in session

The no-confidence vote for the People’s Party and the Pirate Party in the government was on the agenda before 5 pm in the parliament today, but the no-confidence vote calls new elections.

“I had a meeting with the chairpersons of parliamentary parties earlier to discuss the timetable and arrangements, and the conclusion was that the debate will start at 5 pm tomorrow,” Birgir Ármannsson, President of the Icelandic parliament, told mbl.is yesterday.

No agreement reached

Ármannsson stated that no agreement was reached between all parliamentary parties on the format of the debate and stated that the parliamentary provisions would apply.

“A separate procedure can be agreed upon but if some parliamentary parties are not satisfied, the rules of parliamentary procedures will apply. In this case, when there is a vote of no confidence, the same rules apply as in the second reading of parliamentary resolutions, which means that the speeches can be delayed significantly.”

He says he expects the debates to last until late evening and even late at night. It will depend on how many people take part in the debate and how people use the speaking time.

No limit on number of speeches

Strictly speaking, there are no limits on how often MPs may go up to the Althingi podium and give a speech in this instance, according to Ármannsson. After the debates are over, the proposal is voted on.

First, they are entitled to a 15-minute speech, and then after that, they can give a speech for five minutes at a time, as often as they wish.

“Parliamentarians can give quite a lot of short speeches if they want, so it can be a long time coming after the evening and even until the night if that’s the case.”

One party did not want to negotiate

Ármannsson says one party was not able to negotiate the arrangement of discussions, which is a tradition.

He mentions that when a no-confidence vote was taken for the last two elections, the chairmen of parliamentary parties agreed that the debates would last no more than two hours.

“We have usually negotiated this but one parliamentary party was very clear about not wanting an agreement. The pre-condition for deviating from the rules of parliamentary procedure in such cases is that everyone agrees.”