Iceland rejects restarting EU membership talks in referendum, public broadcaster says

Icelanders have rejected a proposal to reopen membership negotiations with the EU, public broadcaster RUV reported Sunday, citing near-complete results from a closely fought referendum.

Vote counting has finished in all but one constituency — the Southwest Constituency — and "it seems certain that it cannot bring the Yes side enough votes to overcome the deficit," RUV said. "On that basis, Iceland has clearly voted to reject the resumption of accession talks with the European Union."

Provisional figures published by the broadcaster showed the No camp leading with 52.5% to the Yes camp's 47.5%, excluding the final constituency. Nationally, 99,037 had voted No and 89,459 Yes, a gap of 9,578 votes. Roughly 32,000 ballots remained to be counted in the Southwest.

For the Yes side to take the lead, it would need about 65% of those remaining votes — nearly 57% of the final total in the constituency — a threshold RUV described as almost impossible.

Icelanders went to the polls on Saturday in a tight referendum on whether to restart EU accession talks frozen for more than a decade. The vote was not on membership itself. A Yes result would have authorized the government to resume negotiations suspended more than 10 years ago, while any eventual accession agreement would still require a second referendum.