Iceland: Icelandic conservative politician, Mr David Odsson, Europe's longest-serving prime minister, is struggling to stay in power against a left-wing challenger keen to become Iceland's first woman prime minister.
Opinion polls suggest that Mr Odsson's Independence Party will take 34-35 per cent of the vote in parliamentary elections on Saturday. The Social Democrats, led by Ms Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir, a popular former mayor of Reykjavik, are within a striking distance at 27-33 per cent, the polls show.
Analysts say voter fatigue with Mr Odsson, prime minister since 1991 and leader of a coalition with the rural Progressives since 1995, has helped the leftist Social-Democratic Alliance gain ground.
Iceland's 262,000 people enjoy a high income thanks to fish stocks off the North Atlantic volcanic island.
The coalition traditions of the Althing, the assembly dating from the Vikings, have ensured stability and strong economic growth.
"To continue to put this stability and prosperity to good use, the Independence Party needs to continue its work," said Mr Illugi Gunnarsson, an adviser to Mr Odsson.
However, Ms Gisladottir said: "Of the last 70 years, the Independence Party has been in government for 50 years. It is a great responsibility to exercise such power and the party's leadership doesn't respect that."
Election winners in Iceland have always formed a coalition, which then names a prime minister, but breaking with tradition, the Social Democrats have fielded Ms Gisladottir as their prime ministerial candidate.
Iceland is a member of NATO, albeit an unarmed one, but has not joined the European Union. EU membership is not an election issue this time around, despite recent gains for EU supporters in its North Atlantic neighbour and fishing rival Norway.
Mr Helgi Kristinsson, a politics professor at the University of Iceland, said the ruling coalition had been doing a good job in many ways, securing a general prosperity and stability, "but they have been in power since 1995 and the nation seems tired of them". - (Reuters)