Parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on 28 June 1959. The Independence Party and the Progressive Party both won 13 seats in the Lower House of the Althing. Following the tie, electoral reforms were introduced and early elections were held in October.
The elections were conducted under ruralâÂÂurban proportional representation. Twenty-one members were elected in single-member constituencies via first-past-the-post voting, while the remainder were elected using D'Hondt method proportional representation: twelve members in two-member constituencies, eight members in ReykjavÃÂk, and eleven from a single national compensatory list. To earn national list seats, a party had to win at least one constituency seat. In constituencies electing two or more members, within the party list, voters had the option to re-rank the candidates and could also strike a candidate out. Allocation of seats to candidates was done using a system based on the Borda count.