Icelanders go to the polls on Saturday in a referendum on whether to resume membership negotiations with the European Union, in a tight race that will be closely watched in Brussels.
The country of just under 400,000 people applied to join the EU in the wake of a 2009 financial crisis that devastated its economy.
The membership talks were suspended in 2013 when a eurosceptic government came to power.
Now, the result of the referendum is expected to be very close, with the latest opinion polls putting the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ sides neck and neck.
“It’s pretty tight, but I’m always optimistic,” Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir, a staunch europhile, told AFP. “It’s not done until it’s done.”
Voting begins at 9:00 am (0900 GMT) and closes at 10:00 pm. With no exit polls and given the tight race, the first reliable results are only expected late Saturday at the earliest.
The around 273,000 voters are being asked to answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to the question: “Should Iceland resume accession negotiations with the European Union?”
