Icelanders resoundingly reject deal to pay back Britain and The Netherlands for collapsed bank

Icelanders reject debt deal over collapsed bank

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — Almost-complete results show voters in Iceland have resoundingly rejected a $5.3 billion plan to pay back Britain and the Netherlands for debts caused by the collapse of an Icelandic Internet bank.

Returns released Sunday with more than 98 percent of ballots counted show 93 percent of voters said “no” in Saturday’s referendum, and just 1.8 percent voted yes. The rest were blank or spoiled ballots.

The result reflects Icelanders’ anger at bankers and politicians as the tiny island nation struggles to recover from a deep recession.

Britain and the Netherlands want to be reimbursed for money they paid citizens with deposits in Icesave, an Internet bank that collapsed in 2008 along with most of Iceland’s banking sector.