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Icelanders refuse bank debt payoff to Britain and Netherlands

11 April 2011 09:14 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. Iceland’s voters have refused to pay back Britain and the Netherlands, who compensated their own citizens when the Icelandic bank Icesave went under in 2008. The vote could mean great insecurity for the island nation, Deutsche Welle reported.

Icelandic voters appeared to have rejected for a second time a plan to compensate Britain and the Netherlands for the 2008 collapse of Icesave bank, according to partial referendum results made available Sunday.

Iceland’s 230,000 eligible voters were asked to decide whether to repay Britain and the Netherlands the 3.9 billion euros ($5.6 billion) the two countries had spent on compensating their citizens who lost money when the online Icelandic bank went under in the 2008 financial crisis.

With around 85,000 votes in the referendum counted, official figures showed 58 percent had voted against the accord compared with 42 percent in favor.

"The worst option was chosen. The vote has split the nation in two," Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir told state television.

The prime minister, who had predicted a no vote would cause economic uncertainty for at least one to two years, did not say whether the government planned to resign.

"We must do all we can to prevent political and economic chaos as a result of this outcome," she said.