Supreme Court Judge Jón Steinar Gunnlaugsson has decided to step aside when the court takes a position on the request of a rehearing of its decision to annul the Constitutional Assembly election from November 2010.

The Supreme Court of Iceland. Photo by Páll Kjartansson.

Constitutional Assembly elect Gísli Tryggvason, who requested the rehearing, received a letter from the Supreme Court of Gunnlaugsson’s decision last night, Fréttabladid reports.

He reasoned that Gunnalugsson should step aside due to his comments on the case in an interview in Návígi, a program on national broadcaster RÚV.

Gunnlaugsson said in a statement included in the letter from the Supreme Court that in the interview, he more or less only referred to the arguments which the Supreme Court published to explain its decision to annul the election.

“Only one comment went a bit further where I mentioned that the Supreme Court did not have any tools to estimate whether the fact that laws were not complied with in the election’s executing had had an impact on its outcome,” he wrote.