Voting closes in Iceland’s knife-edge EU referendum

Iceland’s leadership has promised to honour whatever the country’s people decide.Published On 29 Aug 202629 Aug 2026Vote counting is under way in Iceland’s referendum on resuming membership negotiations with the European Union.Voting stations closed at 10pm local time on Saturday (22:00 GMT), and partial figures started emerging early on Sunday.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Could Russia hit northern Europe if it gained control of Arctic’s Bear Gap?list 2 of 3Iceland heads to polls in knife-edge referendum on restarting EU talkslist 3 of 3Iceland votes in a tight race on whether to resume talks to join the EUend of listBased on the initial 152,000 of an eligible 270,000 votes, 50.1 percent were against the government restarting talks with Brussels, according to broadcaster RUV, the Reuters news agency reported.That is a swing from an earlier Gallup poll, which gave the “yes” a slight lead.A final count is expected at about midday on Sunday, as counting up votes in the island country is a difficult challenge, with ballots coming from towns and rural polling stations by plane, boat, and car.The referendum does not have exit polls, and ballot counting only began once vo...