Surprise win for Iceland's conservatives IN a dramatic about-face, Icelandic voters have returned to power the centre-right parties who led the national economy to collapse five years ago. With most votes counted by early Sunday, the Independence and Progressive Parties each had 19 seats in Iceland's 63-seat parliament, the Althingi. The Independence party would seek government with the support of the agrarian-centrist Progressive Party, Independence leader Bjarni Benediktsson said. The parties governed Iceland for decades before the 2008 crash. Voters shunned the Social Democrat-led coalition that has spent four years trying to turn the country around with painful austerity measures. The new coalition has promised to ease Icelanders' economic pain with tax cuts and debt relief. Voters opted for "a plan that would bring us quicker out of the crisis," Independence Party leader Bjarni Benediktsson said.