Iceland Goes to Polls Amid Scandals, Disgust and Distrust

Mr. Gunnlaugsson had come to power on promises to clear out corruption. But the Panama Papers leak, though it revealed nothing illegal, suggested an unseemly conflict of interest, and an outraged public called for his ouster.

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But Mr. Gunnlaugsson is back. He ditched his old party, the Progressives, and formed the Center Party, a populist outfit promising to squeeze the financial sector and redistribute the wealth.

He has campaigned under the banner of an Icelandic horse, gaining surprising momentum. His charisma, his threats to take news media outlets to court for supposed unfair treatment and his promises to wrest wealth from Iceland's banks have resonated in his largely rural base.

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The anti-establishment Pirates capitalized on the anger over corruption and Mr. Gunnlaugsson's ouster to take second place in snap general elections last October. But they also drove his successor, Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson, to quit as prime minister after his center-right Progressive Party's share of Parliament shrunk to eight seats from 19.

Among the notable parties in the current race is Bright Future, known as a group of idealistic hipsters who say they shun the idea of becoming career politicians. The party is on course to lose most, if not all, of its seats, polls suggest, after helping to precipitate one of the pivotal twists in Icelandic politics.

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In September, eight months after Mr. Benediktsson's administration came to power, he called for new elections, lamenting, "We have lost the majority."

But another scandal landed just as the campaign got underway, salting the nation's old financial wounds. Journalists released some of Mr. Benediktsson's personal financial records from the days before the banking collapse.

They showed no legal wrongdoing, but raised disturbing questions. Mr. Benediktsson, then a member of Parliament, had managed to snatch his money out of harm's way -- just before the crash brought Iceland to its knees.