Iceland votes to reject proposal to begin negotiations to rejoin the European Union

Icelanders reasserted their desire to remain out of the European Union, voting against a referendum that would have initiated negotiations to join the supranational union.

Iceland's National Electoral Commission revealed on Sunday that the measure lost by a 52.8% to 47.2% vote, the Associated Press reported. If Icelanders had voted in the affirmative and supported the referendum, there would still have been no guarantee that the country would have joined the European Union. It would have just meant that the country would restart negotiations, but its fate would have been contingent on those discussions and on another referendum to determine whether to join.