Some 100 people staged a peaceful protest Monday outside the headquarters of the central bank of Iceland, calling for the current management to resign, according to dpa. Central bank governor David Oddsson, a former prime minister and foreign minister, has so far refused to step down despite regular demands for him to quit since the North Atlantic nation's main banks were nationalized in October. Interim Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir on Friday presented a bill that provides for changes to the composition of the central bank, including replacing the three governors with a single governor. In an open letter published Monday on the central bank's website, Oddsson countered: "Unfortunately, the bill in question is so riddled with flaws that there is no chance it will be passed unchanged by parliament." Oddsson, 61, defended his record as central bank governor and maintained he had not had a fair chance to respond to the prime minister's call for his resignation before she went public. Reykjavik has been rocked by demonstrations as the country's economy came close to collapse in the wake of the global credit crunch. The protesters' main demands were for fresh elections, a new government and Oddsson's resignation. Sigurdardottir's transitional government has set early elections for April 25, and she has made it clear she wants the bank restructured, with the position of head of the national bank only open to trained economists. Oddsson was formerly a lawyer.
