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Comment by AlexC04 | Hacker News Reader

This is incredibly interesting. I wonder what their support was in the last election? Or how long it is until the next election.

I know very little about Iceland's political system but suspect some translation problems with the language in that article.

Biggest would really only apply to seats won, while this reads to me as being 'most popular'

Still, really interesting.

I also suspect that the 'shun corruption' just means they havent been caught yet.

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Their support was 5.10% in the last elections which were in the summer of 2013.

In the national elections Iceland is split up into six constituencies which hold certain amounts of seats in parliament. At the moment this (slightly) favours the four constituencies outside of the capital which also favours the 'old block' of parties which are more popular in the countryside/rural areas/small towns.

This survey is showing a big backlash agains those in charge after a string of controversial decisions and corruption allegations. The thing is though that I doubt this backlash will last for two more years. But I'm quite sure that the pirate party will at least double the amount of seats (they have 3 now).

> I also suspect that the 'shun corruption' just means they havent been caught yet.

No, they are actually quite decent people. Birgitta has been an advocate of term limits and intends to not run again (even if term limits are not imposed). She is an artist and has been a consistent defender of the average citizen. Jón Þór is in his first term and has decided to step down mid-term to allow his replacement time to acclimate to Parliament before the next election (which is in 2017, barring public uprising). Helgi Hrafn has indicated he intends not to run again. All of them are passionate about the outcome of the next election and intend to give support to the running candidates.

Corruption of the sort you see in USA does not happen as much in Alþingi, it's more nepotism by the executive (parliamentary rule, which is problematic) than blatant bribery by funding campaigns.

Grassroots for the Pirates is very active and these public servants, truly are serving the public, not the party.

They are wonderful and honest people yes, but with more support and subsequently power the risk of corruption and/or ulterior motives grow.

Thankfully the pirate party advocates extreme transparency which should make "casual corruption" more difficult.

> No, they are actually quite decent people.

For now. They wouldn't be the first people to be corrupted by power.

I think you aren't reading what I wrote. Let me rephrase: When the party is peaking and could be on the cusp of being one of the majority parties, the elected officials are turning the reins over to other people. This is as antithetical to institutional corruption as is possible.

If the good people turn the reins over to other people, then it's a cycle that goes on happily until the reins have been passed over to people who'll do anything to stay in power - it's nice but not sustainable in the long term.

I agree with you, but this only applies for a maximum of a single electoral term. Are the replacements equally immune to a power grab?

This isn't a new idea either. The German Green party did the same… during their first few years in office.

Now they're as corrupt as the others.

> Corruption of the sort you see in USA does not happen as much in Alþingi, it's more nepotism by the executive (parliamentary rule, which is problematic) than blatant bribery by funding campaigns.

Well, the funding that the parties in charge and their members of parliament got from the fisheries in the last elections can be considered a form of bribery. Especially when one of their first works in office was to make sure the fisheries make more money by paying less tax. (This issue is more complicated though).

> This is incredibly interesting. I wonder what their support was in the last election?

5.1% in the last parliamentary elections (in 2013) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_Party_(Iceland)

The survey charts show a rather meteoric very recent rise: http://mmr.is/frettir/birtar-nieurstoeeur/460

The ruling coalition has adopted an interesting strategy of outsourcing both governance and PR to Wile E. Coyote in the last few months, so the current climate is as favorable to the Pirates as possible.

It'll certainly revert towards the mean, but it wouldn't surprise me to see them hold 7 or 8 seats in the next elections (out of 60-ish).

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