Iceland looked likely to steer away from a Pirate takeover today, as voters favored the incumbent Independence Party over the upstart band of buccaneers advocating direct democracy and Internet freedom.
With roughly a third of votes counted from yesterday's election, the Independence Party had about 30 per cent of ballots and the Pirates just under 14 per cent, putting them in third place behind the Left-Green movement.
It's a worse result for the Pirates than some polls suggested, and a better performance than predicted for the Independents, who have governed in coalition since 2013.
Coalition governments are the norm in Iceland's multi-party system. It was not immediately clear whether the Independents would be able to assemble a coalition with other centrist and right-wing parties or whether the Pirates and other opposition forces would get the numbers to govern.
Yesterday's election was held amid widespread public discontent with Iceland's traditional elites, with debate focusing on the economy and voters' desire for political reform.
It was called after the center-right prime minister resigned in April during public protests over his offshore holdings, revealed in the Panama Papers leak.
The tax-avoidance scandal outraged many Icelanders, who suffered years of economic upheaval after the country's debt-swollen banks collapsed during the 2008 global financial crisis.
Founded four years ago by an assortment of hackers, political activists and Internet freedom advocates, the Pirate Party has seen support grow among Icelanders fed up with established parties after years of financial turmoil and political scandal.
Some polls had given the Pirates the support of a fifth of voters, potentially poised to become the biggest group in the volcanic island nation's parliament, the Althingi.
Pirate lawmaker Birgitta Jonsdottir said the early results were in line with the party's own prediction of between 12 and 15 per cent up from the 5 per cent it secured in 2013.
"If we get more than 15 per cent, we will be deeply thankful," she said. "We're just amazed that we'll possibly maybe triple our following from last time, and it's only three years."
The Pirates campaigned on promises to introduce direct democracy, subject the workings of government to more scrutiny and place the country's natural resources under public ownership.
The party also seeks tough rules to protect individuals from online intrusion. Jonsdottir, the Pirates' most prominent voice, is a former ally of WikiLeaks who has called on Iceland to offer citizenship to US National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.
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