General elections were held in the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

on 19 January 2008, the latest possible date. The

Self-Government Party Sjálvstýri (previously Sjálvstýrisflokkurin) (English: referred to interchangeably as ''Independence'', ''Self-Government'', or ''Home Rule'') is a liberal, autonomist political party on the Faroe Islands. It is currently led by the Mayor of ...

and the Centre Party gained a seat each while the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

lost a seat. It had been considered to amend the election law to hold the election two weeks later to pass a number of important bills before the election, but in the end the negotiations on this failed and the election was called on 2007-12-07. Prior to this election, the electoral system was changed in 2007 from a system with seven multi-member constituencies, which had some elements of

mixed member proportional Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP or MMPR) is a mixed electoral system in which votes cast are considered in local elections and also to determine overall party vote tallies, which are used to allocate additional members to produce ...

voting, to a system with a single constituency for the whole country in order to reduce disproportionality. Prior to the election, the

formed a centrist unionist government with the People's Party and the Union Party. After the elections, four days of negotiations saw a centre-left separatist government emerge; while the Social Democratic Party retained the PM's post, the strongly pro-independence

Republic A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

got the majority of ministerial posts (including the newly created post of foreign minister). The Centre Party also participated in the new government. Among the coalition agreement points was a plan to draft a constitution for the Faroe Islands, which would be approved in a referendum to be held in 2010. The coalition broke up in mid-2008, however, and a government consisting of the parties governing before the 2008 election was sworn in on 26 September 2008, with

Kaj Leo Johannesen Kaj Leo Holm Johannesen (born 28 August 1964 in Tórshavn) is a Faroese politician. He was the prime minister of the Faroe Islands, representing the Faroese Unionist Party ( Sambandsflokkurin). He took office, succeeding Jóannes Eidesgaard on ...

as PM instead.

Results

References

{{Faroese elections

Faroes The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway betw ...

2008 in the Faroe Islands Elections in the Faroe Islands January 2008 events in Europe

Results

See also

References