Icelanders vote in world's first 'crowdsourced constitution'

Icelanders backed proposals for a new basic law, preliminary results showed yesterday, after a referendum on what has been dubbed the world's first "crowdsourced constitution".

Turnout was estimated at less than 50 per cent amid voter fears that the results of the non-binding referendum would be ignored by the small Nordic country's politicians.

The proposed new basic law for the island nation was drafted by 25 citizens with the help of hundreds of others who weighed in on social-media sites like Twitter and Facebook.

On Saturday, the committee put six constitution-related questions to voters in a referendum, to be answered "yes" or "no".

Voters were asked whether they want the proposals to form the basis of a draft constitution. After ballots in half the constituencies had been counted, two-thirds of voters had answered that question in the affirmative, data from the country's election committees compiled by public broadcaster RUV showed.

Other questions included topics such as the country's natural resources and the role of its national church. Results indicated that voters want to keep the country's national church and think natural resources that are not privately owned should be considered public property.