Published June 15, 2012

It is very true that one of the six presidential candidates is mostly absent from The Reykjavík Grapevine this time around. It saddens us greatly that the venerable Dr. Herdís Þorgeirsdóttir is the only current presidential candidate to not grace one of our covers for this issue or feature in an interview. What a bummer!

Here is why the venerable Dr. Herdís Þorgeirsdóttir is the only current presidential candidate to not grace one of our covers for this issue or feature in an interview: After initially granting us an interview and agreeing to participate in a photoshoot for the cover, Dr. Herdís decided (on the day before we went to print) that she would rather not be part of the whole endeavour. After some pleading and a bit of begging, we ultimately had to respect her decision and point of view, even though we really, really wanted everything to work out.
We are sorry everything didn’t work out, Herdís!

Our whole idea with putting everyone running on our cover and granting them equal space in the paper was an attempt to support and strengthen our democracy by giving everyone the same amount of exposure and support, in an election that has been widely portrayed as a battle of ‘two towers.’ We like the thought of an open democracy—one where everyone has an equal access to the media, one where people are free to run for office to promulgate their ideas or views regardless of their finances or connections—and our intent with this issue was to actively promote that.

It’s totally embarrassing that we weren’t able to do that, but the situation was unfortunately out of our control. We hope you understand our position, and we also hope you can try to understand Herdís’s position (because everyone is entitled to their second thoughts, right?).
And we urge you to read up on Herdís’s platform and ideas (accessible for instance on www.herdis.is), as well as familiarising yourself with what the other candidates are proposing. Through writing and researching this issue, we have come to know all of the presidential candidates fairly well, and we can say with an amount of certainty that each and every one of them holds great qualities and is arguably running because of his or her will to serve the Republic of Iceland in the best way he or she can.

Democracy is important. Every election is important. This election is important. If you have the opportunity, you should read up on what the candidates are proposing, and then cast your vote to your best conscience on Election Day. Because why wouldn’t you want to participate in the democratic process?