| Country: | Iceland |
| Previous Election: | June 1959 |
| Election Date: | 25 and 26 October 1959 |
| Next Election: | 1963 |
| Seats For Election: | All 40 seats in the Lower House and 20 seats in the Upper House of Althing |
| Turnout: | 90.37% |
| Heading1: | Upper House |
| Heading5: | Lower House |
| Leader1: | Ólafur Thors |
| Leader5: | Ólafur Thors |
| Party1: | Independence Party (Iceland) |
| Party5: | Independence Party (Iceland) |
| Last Election1: | 7 |
| Last Election5: | 13 |
| Seats1: | 8 |
| Seats5: | 16 |
| Percentage1: | 39.72 |
| Percentage5: | 39.72 |
| Leader2: | Hermann Jónasson |
| Leader6: | Hermann Jónasson |
| Party2: | Progressive Party (Iceland) |
| Party6: | Progressive Party (Iceland) |
| Last Election2: | 6 |
| Last Election6: | 13 |
| Seats2: | 6 |
| Seats6: | 11 |
| Percentage2: | 25.71 |
| Percentage6: | 25.71 |
| Party3: | People's Alliance (Iceland) |
| Party7: | People's Alliance (Iceland) |
| Last Election3: | 2 |
| Last Election7: | 5 |
| Seats3: | 3 |
| Seats7: | 7 |
| Percentage3: | 16.01 |
| Percentage7: | 16.01 |
| Leader4: | Emil Jónsson |
| Leader8: | Emil Jónsson |
| Party4: | Social Democratic Party (Iceland) |
| Party8: | Social Democratic Party (Iceland) |
| Last Election4: | 2 |
| Last Election8: | 4 |
| Seats4: | 3 |
| Seats8: | 6 |
| Percentage4: | 15.17 |
| Percentage8: | 15.17 |
| Prime Minister | |
| Before Election: | Emil Jónsson |
| Before Party: | Social Democratic Party (Iceland) |
| After Party: | Independence Party (Iceland) |
Early parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on 25 and 26 October 1959.[1] Following the electoral reforms made after the June elections, the Independence Party won 16 of the 40 seats in the Lower House of the Althing.[2]
The June 1959 elections had ended with both the Independence Party and the Progressive Party winning 13 seats, despite the IP receiving 42% of the vote to the PP's 27%.[3] The electoral system at the time was rural–urban proportional representation: a lower tier comprised single member constituencies elected using first-past-the-post voting, two-member constituencies elected using party-list proportional representation (party-list PR) and one large multi-member constituency for Reykjavík that also used party-list PR, topped up by an upper tier of eleven seats chosen from a single national compensatory list.[4] [5]
The reforms saw the replacement of this rural-urban proportional system with a two-tier party-list PR system; the lower tier now comprised eight multi-member constituencies, all elected using party-list PR.[5] [4] Five constituencies elected five members each, two elected six members each and Reykjavík elected 12. The number of seats for Reykjavík was also increased from the prior elections,[5] increasing the overall total in the Lower House from 35 to 40 and in the Upper House from 17 to 20.[6]
The voters’ capacity to change the order of names on the PR lists was greatly reduced compared to prior elections as well; the existing Borda count-based system was now only being used to calculate one-third of the final number of votes deemed to have been received by each candidate, while the party’s unaltered ordering determined the remaining two-thirds.[4]