Elections in Norway

Norway elects its legislature on a national level. The parliament, the Storting (or Stortinget by Norwegian grammar), has 169 members elected for a four-year term (during which it may not be dissolved) by the proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies.

Norway has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments and/or minority cabinets.

In Norway, elections are held every second year, alternating between elections for the Parliament and local elections, both of which are held every four years.

Suffrage is universal from the year a person turns 18 years old, even if the person turns 18 later in the year the election is held. Only Norwegian citizens can vote in the Parliamentary elections, but foreigners who have lived in Norway for three years continuously can vote in the local elections. Women's suffrage was adopted in 1913.

The King of Norway is not considered a "citizen" and cannot vote. The queen and crown prince are eligible to vote but traditionally do not do so.^[1]

The last election was the 2013 parliamentary election, on 9 September. The last local elections were the 2015 local elections on 14 September.

The election system

Norway uses the same system in both local and national elections when it comes to distributing mandates. This method is the modified Sainte-Laguë method and the underlying principle is that the number of seats a party gets in the Storting should be as close to the relative number of votes the party got in the election (the principle of mathematical fairness).

There are some exceptions to the above-mentioned principle:

1. Leveling seats: These mandates exist to adjust what was thought to be unfair: A party could theoretically get a number of votes in total, but not a high enough count in any single constituency to get a mandate. A party must achieve more than 4% of the total votes – the election threshold – to be entitled to levelling seats.
2. The rural additions: Sparsely populated constituencies get more mandates than the population would suggest. This is to maintain a representative feeling in the national assembly and to prevent urban votes overrunning the rural votes, but has been criticised by the OSCE, among others, for being unfair.^[2]
3. Many parties, few mandates: All of the eight parties represented in the Storting (Socialist Left Party (SV), Green Party (Norway) (MDG), Labour Party (Ap), Centre Party (Sp), Venstre (V), Christian People's Party (KrF), Conservative Party (H), Progress Party (FrP)) run lists in all 19 counties. In addition to these 8, a total of 21 parties had lists in the 2005 election. These parties all compete for the same mandates, and in constituencies with few mandates, few or none of them get in. This is partially offset by levelling seats, but only for parties above the election threshold.

Unlike most parliaments, the Storting always serves its full four-year term; the constitution does not allow snap elections, nor does it give the monarch the right to dissolve parliament even if the government advises it. By-elections are rare, since substitutes are elected at each general election.

Parliamentary elections

Constituencies and seat distribution

Norway is divided into 19 counties, and each county is a constituency in the election. Each county elects a pre-calculated number of seats in the Parliament, the Storting, based on the population and geographical area of the county. Each inhabitant scores one point and each square kilometer scores 1.8 points. This calculation is done every eight years. This practice has been criticised because in some larger counties with sparse population a single vote counts more than in other more densely populated counties. Others claim that counties with a scattered and sparse population situated far away from the central administration should have a stronger representation in the Parliament. In recent elections a vote in the northernmost county Finnmark has counted approximately twice a vote in the capital Oslo or the surrounding county Akershus.

After the votes are counted and the members of the Parliament are designated their respective seats of their county, 19 leveling seats, one in each county, are divided to parties who got fewer seats than their election result percentage would suggest. This practice was adopted in 1989. However, only parties with more than 4% of the votes on a national basis – the election threshold – are entitled to leveling seats.

For the elections of 2005 and 2009 the distribution of seats, including levelling seats, is as follows:

County	Seats
Østfold	9
Akershus	16
Oslo	17
Hedmark	8
Oppland	7
Buskerud	9
Vestfold	7
Telemark	6
Aust-Agder	4
Vest-Agder	6
Rogaland	13
Hordaland	15
Sogn og Fjordane	5
Møre og Romsdal	9
Sør-Trøndelag	10
Nord-Trøndelag	6
Nordland	10
Troms	7
Finnmark	5
Total	169

Local elections

Old ballot box from Selje, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway

The local elections are two separate elections held at the same time. The first is the county election, which elects politicians to the county council. Second is the municipality election, which elects politicians to the municipal councils.

Elections

• Norwegian county council election, 2003
• Norwegian local elections, 2007

Sámi Parliament election

People of Sámi heritage, included in the Sámi census, are eligible to vote to the Sami Parliament of Norway. For the election Norway is divided into 13 constituencies from which 3 representatives are elected. In addition an additional representative is elected from the four constituencies with most votes. The election is held at the same time as the elections to the Norwegian Parliament.

Referendums

• Norwegian referendum on the dissolution of the union between Sweden and Norway, 1905
• Norwegian referendum on Prince Charles of Denmark as Norwegian King, 1905
• Norwegian Prohibition referendum, 1919
• Norwegian Continued Prohibition referendum, 1926
• Norwegian European Communities membership referendum, 1972
• Norwegian European Union membership referendum, 1994

Rules concerning election days

The sale of alcoholic beverages on election days is prohibited by section 3-7 of the Alcohol Act.^[3] This is to prevent people from voting under the influence of alcohol.

External links

• Adam Carr's Election Archive
• The official government summary of the Norwegian electoral system
• NSD: European Election Database - Norway publishes regional level election data; allows for comparisons of election results, 1993–2009

References

1. "Kan Kongen stemme?" (in Norwegian). NRK. June 22, 2007. Retrieved 2009-08-13.
2. "Internasjonal kritikk av det norske valgsystemet" (in Norwegian). Adresseavisen. September 7, 2013. Retrieved 2013-09-07.
3. "LOV 1989-06-02 nr 27: Lov om omsetning av alkoholholdig drikk m.v. (alkoholloven)". Retrieved 2009-03-11.