Iceland president gives Left-Green Movement chief mandate to form next gov't

Iceland's President Gudni Johannesson on Wednesday transferred the mandate to form the next government to the Left-Green Movement's leader after the Independence Party chief failed to do so, Icelandic media reported.

"During our discussion (with Left-Green Movement leader Katrin Jakobsdottir), we discussed the fact that, while we should not act rashly, time is of the essence," Johannesson was quoted as saying by the online newspaper Iceland Monitor, referring to the need to form a majority government.

Jakobsdottir confirmed her intention to try and form a multi-party grand alliance stretching from the centre to the left of Icelandic politics and said she will meet leaders of other political parties on Thursday.

Bjarni Benediktsson, chairman of the Independence Party, which took a lead in the recent parliamentary election, said Tuesday his attempt to reach an agreement with the Vidreisn (Revival) party and Bright Future had failed.

Formal negotiations between the three Icelandic parties on forming a new government had broken down due to differences over fish management and European Union membership, according to Icelandic media.

The Independence Party, one of the two current ruling parties, got 21 out of the 63 seats in the parliament with winning 29.0 percent of the ballots cast in the Oct. 29 election.

However, the centrist Progressive Party, the other ruling party, finished fourth with only eight seats, 11 fewer than what it had gained in the last parliamentary election in 2013.

The Left-Green Movement gained 10 seats with 15.9 percent of votes, while the Pirate Party, which had taken the lead in many pre-election polls over the months, also won 10 seats with 14.5 percent.

The Vidreisn party, the Bright Future and the Social Democratic Alliance also crossed the 5-percent electoral threshold with seven, four and three seats respectively. Endit