Icelanders voted in an election today set to give centre-left parties a majority for the first time after protests over an economic crisis toppled the previous conservative-led government, according to Reuters. Opinion polls show the Social Democrat/Left-Green caretaker government that stepped in after the old administration fell will win the vote, called ahead of the 2011 due date. "We are now going through the most historical election the Icelandic nation has gone through since the establishment of the republic in 1944," Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, 66, leader of the Social Democratic Alliance, said. "If the coalition remains in power we will continue on the same path," she added. The vote is set to be an electoral rebuke to the leading centre-right Independence Party, which led the failed coalition government and has been blamed for the crisis. The new government will need tough decisions to cut spending, raise revenues and find ways to reduce surging unemployment.
