The final figures from South-West Iceland were a long time coming, but now that they are in, it is clear that the No side won the referendum on EU negotiations by 52.8 per cent to 47.2 per cent.

This was reported by Iceland’s public broadcaster RÚV.

The reason it took so long to obtain the final result in the south-west was that the votes had to be recounted in Kópavogur, one of the constituency’s polling districts, where the figures “did not add up”.

Since South-West Iceland is the country’s most populous constituency and lies close to Reykjavik, in the absence of the final figures one could cling to a mathematical hope of sixty per cent Yes votes in the constituency, as people there might perhaps have been expected to vote more in line with the capital than with the rest of the country.

But the hope was, as everyone expected, in vain. Now that the results are in, there is a narrow No majority in the south-west as well.

And with that, a symbolically important defeat for the EU is a fact.

Turnout was 82.5 per cent. That is high, but below the record of 85.1 per cent from the 2009 parliamentary election.