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A municipal merger referendum was held in the Faroe Islands on 3 May 2012. Proposals were put forward for merging the thirty existing municipalities into seven new municipalities, with voters in each of the proposed new areas voting on the merger. The proposition was rejected in six of the seven proposed new municipalities. As a result, none of the mergers went ahead.^[1]

Background

Proposals for municipality mergers and delegating powers to municipalities had been discussed for 20–25 years prior to the referendum.^[2] The Centre Party, People's Party and Social Democratic Party were in favour of voluntary mergers, whilst the Self-Government Party, Republic and Union Party favoured creating the mergers by legislation. Progress advocated for drafting legislation on the mergers and submitting it to voters through a referendum.^[3]

In the autumn of 2011, the Faroese government announced that it would be transferring responsibility for elderly care and primary education from 1 January 2014, and that the number of municipalities would need to be reduced from the 30 that existed at the time.^[4] A referendum on the merger proposals was announced by Interior Minister Kári P. Højgaard on 20 December 2011, which was based on section 7 of the Act on Voluntary Municipal Mergers and Inter-municipal Cooperation on Statutory Services. Anyone eligible to vote in municipal elections was able to vote in the referendum.^[5]

Proposed mergers

Proposed municipality	Existing municipalities	Population (1 January 2012)
Eysturoy	Fuglafjørður, Eystur, Nes, Runavík, Sjóvar	9,451
Norðoyar	Fugloy, Húsar, Hvannasund, Klaksvík, Kunoy, Viðareiði	5,821
Sandoy	Húsavík, Sandur, Skálavík Skopun, Skúvoy	1,325
Streymoy	Kvívík, Tórshavn, Vestmanna	21,601
Suðuroy	Fámjin, Hov, Hvalba, Porkeri, Sumba, Tvøroyri, Vágur	4,676
Sundalagið	Eiði, Sunda	2,334
Vágar	Sørvágur, Vágar	3,076
Source: Hagstova^[6]

Results

Vágar, where the merger process was already underway, was the only proposed municipality area in which voters approved the proposals. Although there were majorities in some individual municipalities, these were largely areas that were expected to become the centre of the new municipality; only three of the peripheral municipalities voted in favour.^[1]

Proposed municipality	For		Against		Invalid blank	Total	Registered voters	Turnout	Result
Proposed municipality	Votes	%	Votes	%	Invalid blank	Total	Registered voters	Turnout	Result
Eysturoy		36.3		63.7		2,964	6,929	42.8	Rejected
Norðoyar		47.6		52.4		1,149	4,351	26.4	Rejected
Sandoy		47.6		52.4		555	1,008	55.1	Rejected
Streymoy		27.8		72.2		3,508	15,763	22.2	Rejected
Suðuroy		34.5		65.5		1,729	3,558	48.6	Rejected
Sundalagið		41.1		58.9		569	1,690	33.7	Rejected
Vágar		63.3		36.7		1,163	2,227	52.2	Accepted
Total						11,637	35,526	32.8
Source: KVF^[7] Folketing^[8]