‹ 2005 · members
Norwegian Parliamentary election, 2009
All 169 seats to the Norwegian Parliament
September 14, 2009
		First party	Second party	Third party
Leader		Jens Stoltenberg	Siv Jensen	Erna Solberg
Party		Labour Party	Progress Party	Conservative Party
Leader since		?	?	?
Last election		61 seats, 32.7%	38 seats, 22.1%	23 seats (14.1%)
Seats won		64	41	30
Seat change		+3	+3	+7
Popular vote		949,060	614,724	462,465
Percentage		35.4%	22.9%	17.2%
		Fourth party	Fifth party	Sixth party
Leader		Kristin Halvorsen	Liv Signe Navarsete	Dagfinn Høybråten
Party		Socialist Left	Centre	Christian Democratic
Last election		15 seats (8.8%)	11 seats (6.5%)	11 seats (6.8%)
Seats won		11	11	10
Seat change		-4	0	-1
Popular vote		166,366	165,014	148,750
Percentage		6.2%	6.2%	5.5%
Incumbent Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg Red-Green Coalition Prime Minister-designate Jens Stoltenberg Red-Green Coalition

Norway

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Norway

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The 2009 parliamentary election was held in Norway on September 14, 2009.^[1] Elections in Norway, by direction, are held on a Monday in September, usually the second or third Monday. Early voting was possible between August 10-September 11, 2009,^[2] while some municipalities held open voting on 13 September.^[1] Voters elected 169 members for the Storting^[3], which are elected every fourth years at a time.^[4] Voter turn-out in the 2005 general elections was 77.4%.^[5]

Candidates were elected on party lists in each of the 19 counties. The political parties nominated candidates for these lists through autumn 2008 and the winter of 2009 (Probably means during autumn 2008 and winter 2008/09). The party lists had to be registered by 31 March 2009.^[6]

Although the opposition received more votes, the governing Red-Green Coalition obtained more seats in parliament. This allowed Jens Stoltenberg to continue as prime minister. Further to the right, both the Conservative Party and Progress Party increased their number of seats in parliament.^[7] The centrist Liberal Party failed to meet the electoral threshold of 4.0%, and were reduced to two representatives in Parliament.^[8]

Contents 1 Pre-Campaign 1.1 Proportional representation system 1.2 Speculations 2 Campaign 2.1 Labour 2.2 Progress 2.3 Conservative 2.4 Socialist Left 2.5 Centre 2.6 Christian Democratic 2.7 Liberal 2.8 Red 3 Results 3.1 Exit polls 3.2 Election results 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Pre-Campaign

[edit] Proportional representation system

There are 169 seats in the Norwegian Parliament, but voters directly elect only 150 as constituency representatives and the remaining 19 are 'at-large" members—one for each county—and these are apportioned to parties based on the national vote total. Norway's proportional voting system was implemented in 1989, and has been criticized after each general election. The system tends to reward large and middle-sized political parties, especially in the rural districts, and makes it difficult for new and small parties to win representation in parliament.^[9]

In parliamentary elections Norway is divided into 19 constituencies corresponding to the counties, including the municipal authority of Oslo which is a county of its own. The number of members to be returned from each constituency varies from three to sixteen, and depends on the population and area of the county. Norway has capped the number of "fixed" seats at 150 and to determine how to apportion those amongst the 19 counties it uses a two-tier formula based on population and geographic size. Each inhabitant counts one point, while each square kilometer counts 1.8 points.^[9]

[edit] Speculations

By early 2008, Norwegian media was already speculating about possible outcomes to the election, and politicians were making statements about their preferred coalition partners. No single party has had a majority in the Norwegian parliament since 1961, and the largest party in the previous election won only 61 of the 169 seats.^[10] The overwhelming likelihood was therefore that the election would lead to the formation of a majority or minority coalition government, with the only likely single party minority government being a Labour one.^[11]

Leader of the Liberal Party, Lars Sponheim, said during a televised debate in early 2008 that the Red-Green coalition government would face the same problems as Kjell Magne Bondevik's second coalition government. Further added that the Red-Green coalition was losing its "faith in the continued majority. It does something to you and your desire for power".^[11] In an opinion survey done in December, 2008, 55% of the Norwegian people had most faith in Red-Green Coalition government would lead Norway out of the financial crisis.^[12]

[edit] Campaign

[edit] Labour

By late 2008, the Norwegian Labour Party was no longer the largest party in Norway, according to various opinion poll measurements.^[13] The Norstat poll for NRK the Progress Party 30.6% while the Labour Party declined to 26%. By September, 2008 the party increased to 29.5%, while the Progress Party decreased to 29.2%.^[14] By early September, an opinion poll created by Synovate, the Labour Party had managed to earn 33.8% of the popular vote, while the Progress Party had continued to decrease to 21.4%.^[15]

After announcing their plans of tightening the national immigration policy, the Labour Party increased by 2.5% in an opinion poll done by In Fact for Verdens Gang, while the Progress Party decreased by 1.8%.^[16] 2 of 3 Norwegians claimed that they agreed with the new "tightening" of the immigration policy.^[17] Later in a controversial statement, party secretary Raymond Johanson said "Siv Jensen is the biggest threat to the Norwegian oil industry", claiming their oil drilling policy in Lofoten would be a mistake.^[18]

The Prime Minister, and leader of the Labour Party, Jens Stoltenberg, stated that Labour would campaign for a renewed majority for the ruling coalition, the so-called Red-Green Coalition, consisting of Labour, the Socialist Left and the Centre Party.^[19] The consequences were less clear if the ruling coalition would lost its majority. The coalition was unlikely to remain in power as a minority government. The Norwegian newspaper, Verdens Gang claimed in March 2008 that the Labour Party could form a minority government on its own, if the ruling coalition should lose its parliamentary majority. The county mayor of Sør-Trøndelag, Tore O. Sandvik, was quoted as supporting this option.^[19] However, during a debate Stoltenberg said that a non-socialist majority would yield a non-socialist government.^[20]

The party managed to gather 35.4% of the popular vote, which was an increase of 2.7% and resulted in an additional 3 new seats in parliament. This led to the continuation of the Red-Green Coalition government.^[5] After the election, many of the opposition leaders believed that the Red-Green Coalition government will collapse under a governmental crisis, because of the Labour Party constantly overrunning their government partners.^[21] In an opinion poll done for November, two months after the election, all parties continued to decrease, leading many to speculate that the Red-Green Coalition is "slipping".^[22]

[edit] Progress

The Progress Party's One hundred days plan was officially announced in August, 2009 in Trondheim. According to their One hundred days plan the party wanted to enlarge "freedom of choice in all public services", making businesses "the most competitive in Europe and restoring confidence in Norway".^[23] Per Sandberg, deputy leader of the Progress Party's chapter in Sør Trøndelag, blamed the one hundred days plan and said; "The debate on our 100-day program laid out disappointingly fast. We can only lash ourselves to the all-time run".^[24]

The Progress Party leader, Siv Jensen, stated that her party will not support a coalition government which it does not participate in, thus apparently ruling out a minority coalition of the Conservatives, the Liberals and the Christian Democrats, like the government of Kjell Magne Bondevik which was in office from 2001 to 2005. She has also stated that the Progress Party would have been to form a minority government alone, if the party would win more seats in parliament than the other three non-socialist parties.^[25]

In the months before the election, the party had, as in the 2001 election, received very high poll results which steadily declined throughout the last weeks. In late 2008, in certain individual polls the party averaged around 30% which by that point made it the largest party in Norway,^[26] the election result was in this case relatively disappointing. In the electoral campaign which lasted for four weeks before the election, the party also dropped 3.5% in the poll average. Most of these last losses went to the Conservative Party who had run a successful campaign.^[24] The Progress Party increased by 0.9%, a slight gain from previous election, which resulted in the best election result in the party's history.

[edit] Conservative

In the previous election the Conservatives managed to get the worst result in party history after the Second World War, only managing to gain 14.1% of the popular vote.^[27] After having several weak showings from May-July according to various opinion poll measurements, most notably by Norstat.^[14] After having what Verdens Gang described as the "summer nightmare", In Fact, an opinion poll measurement service, announced that the Conservatives had managed to gain 15% of the popular vote in their poll.^[28]

In January, Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party, Per-Kristian Foss, said that the party "would not sit in a government without" Erna Solberg as prime minister. Further claiming that both the Christian Democrats and the Liberals agreed with their decision. When hearing of their decision, Leader of the Christian Democrats, Dagfinn Høybråten, stated "this is very natural to clarify when the voters have had their say about which candidate they support".^[29] After seeing the Progress Party's One hundred day plan, Solberg said "So I conclude that the 100-day revolution is canceled", with the two center parties distancing themselves more from the Progress Party.^[30]

Both the Christian Democrats and the Liberals have openly supported a three party coalition with Solberg as Prime Minister. A new Christian Democrat-Liberal-Conservative government would have avoided needing support from the Progress Party by leaving the draft budget from the Red-Green Coalition unchanged. This budget would then pass with support from the Red-Greens and the new non-socialist government. Further issues can then be postponed until 2010, and be handled on an individual basis. The Progress Party has promised that they will vote for measures which they agree with, and the Red-Green parties were expected to do the same.^[31] By the start of September, the Progress Party had lost 4.9% of its public support, many believed it was because of their One hundred day plan. At the same time, the Conservative party won 3.7%, many of them being former Progress Party supporters.^[32]

The party gained 17.2% of the vote, an increase of 3.1%, in total the party managed to gain 462,465 votes. The Conservatives earned 30 seats in parliament, an increase of 7 from previous election.^[5] After a "disastrous" election by the Liberal Party, party leader Lars Sponheim blamed Solberg for the bad results, accusing her of "tearing the party apart". Solberg responding with "He can't honestly believe that having political differences, is to tear apart the Liberal Party".^[33]

[edit] Socialist Left

Facing a steadily decrease in support since they joined the Red-Green Coalition, Socialist Left was faced with one of their worst elections since the 1980s. In the 2007 local elections their election result was halved from the previous local elections held in 2003.^[34] By May, the Socialist Left was the only party in the Red-Green Coalition who increased in public support and averaged about 11.1% of the popular vote.^[35]

Following a bleak downturn, the party made a comeback by late August, averaging around 10% of the votes in various opinion polls. At the same time, the two other members of the Red-Green Coalition decreased in public support. According to the national newspaper, Dagbladet, Socialist Left's rise in popularity was because of the their stands on environmental issues, the most important issue being the oil drilling in Lofoten.^[36]

During the campaign, Kristin Halvorsen, was the voice of much criticism. The criticism came from an earlier quote from the 2005 parliamentary election were she said "I will remove poverty with a stroke of a pen". Which ultimatley failed and poverty increased nationwide. Jens Stoltenberg said "Kristin has been a driving force to combat poverty, especially among children. But we are not satisfied, and should do more".^[37]

Later on September 12, the party met with another decrease in public support holding an average of 7% according to various polls. On September 12, two days before election day, party leader Halvorsen started the "24 hours - 24 measures" campaign to build up public support before the election day. The Norwegian newspaper said in one of their articles that Socialist Left was stuck in an "election massacre", saying there was little hope of increasing public support by the last two days.^[38]

On the election night, the party lost four seats and were left with 11, but a three-seat gain by the Labor Party secured the Red-Green coalition a majority in Parliament. The shift of power within the coalition resulted in the party losing one cabinet minister, leaving them with four, the same as the Center Party. SV and Kristin Halvorsen conceded the influential Department of Finance to the Labour party in order to keep control of the Department for Education and Research.^[39]

[edit] Centre

During the election, the Centre Party faced loosing its core voters, being the peasants and farmers, because Minister of Finance, Kristin Halvorsen, wanted to introduce higher taxes to farming communites, which the farming community said would lead to high unemployment. Heikki Holmås from Socialist Left said there had been no proof of high taxing leading to more unemployment.^[40] In a later statement, Havarsete admited that she had not "been able to reduce the income gap between farmers and other income groups", saying it would be an issue she would discuss with the Norwegian Labour Party and Socialist Left.^[41]

When the results were announced, the party received 165,014, meaning 6.2% a decline from 6.5%. With the Socialist Left decreasing from 8.8% to 6.2% in popular vote,^[5] the Centre Party is demanding as many and central Council of States as the Socialist Left.^[42]

[edit] Christian Democratic

According to election analysers, the party were able to win more votes because of their strong opposition to the Marriage Act of 2008, which gave gay people the right to marriage. Believing that same-sex marriage would hurt the upringing of the children. With party leader Dagfinn Høybråten claiming that marriage is primairly for a man and a woman.^[43]

During the national convention, Høybråten held a speech attacking the Red-Green Coalition, while the most important message was an attack of market economy and consumer thinking in Norway.^[44] In a later statement, Høybråten said he'd "challenge the conservatives with value, those who are not so concerned about dollars and cents, or the calculators". He later admited it would be hard to work with the Conservatives if they won the election.^[45]

A major problem facing the party, was that it lost right leaning christian voters to the Progress Party. Many of the them believed that the party would not be able to defend "christian traditions" in Norway with its strong opposition to a government run by the Progress. Another problem facing the party, was that it was not able renew its image among voters.^[46]

Høybråten stated that his party would not be part of a coalition with the Progress Party, but has not ruled out supporting such a government.^[47] The Christian Democrats' preference for a coalition was with the Liberals and the Conservatives.^[48] In total, the Christian Democrats were able to gather 5.5% of the popular vote, a decrease from 6.7% from previous election. After the announcement of their results, Deputy Leader Inger Lise Hansen sparked unrest within the party. Hansen felt that the party had become to "narrow", wanting the party to return to its "generous and popular image" roots it held during the 1990s. Another faction within the party wanted Høybråten to resign as party leader.^[49]

[edit] Liberal

The leader of the Liberal Party, Lars Sponheim, stated in September 2007 that the Liberal Party would not be a part of, or support, a coalition which included the Progress Party, and that the Liberal Party prefered Norwegian Labour Party Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, rather than the Progress Party leader, Siv Jensen.^[50] By late August, 2009 figures done by Respons suggested that only 2% within the Liberal Party wanted to collaborate with the Progress Party.^[51] Sponheim later distanced himself and the party from the Conservative Party, being that the Conservative Party wanted to improve relations with the Progress Party. In response to this, Sponheim said "A vote for the Conservatives is a vote for the Progress Party", saying that the Liberal Party was the only solid choice on the right who didn't want to be involved in a government which included the Progress Party.^[52]

During a national broadcasted debate on TV2, Sponheim said if the Progress Party won the minority government position, he'd give a motion of no confidence proposal to the new government cabinet.^[53] If the vote of no confidence would not work, the Liberal Party would support a minority government led by Stoltenberg and the Labour Party.^[54] The Norwegian media criticised Sponheim of being very vague and unclear when it came to the Progress Party, with the Red-Green Coalition being unsure of what side he was actually on.^[55]

Election researcher, Frank Aarebot predicted a catastrophic election for the party by early September. The main reasoning behind this prediction was Sponheims decision to merge various small municipalities, to create larger and more efficient system for each municipal. Liv Signe Navarsete, leader of the Centre Party, called the proposal "un-democratic" and said forced merging would only make matters worse.^[56]

On the evening of 14 September 2009, Lars Sponheim announced that he would step down as party leader, as a consequence of the results his party achieved.^[57] The Liberal Party ended up under the 4% threshold for leveling seats, leaving the party with only two seats in parliament, whereas they had ten seats before the election.^[58] Sponheim went later on to blame the Conservative Party for the bad results that hit the Liberal Party and centre politics in Norway.^[59] He later revealed that Stoltenberg and himself were planning to include the Liberal Party into the ruling government coalition. Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Ola Elvestuen was negative towards the idea, saying the only party options for a government coalition are with the Christian Democrats and the Conservatives.^[60]

[edit] Red

Red was established by a merger between the Red Electoral Alliance and the Workers' Communist Party in 2007, electing Torstein Dahle from the Red Electoral Alliace as the party leader.^[61] In the 2007 county election, Red received 1.9% of the popular vote, a rise from 1.6% under the Red Electoral Alliance.^[62] In a opinion poll by TNS Gallip for TV2 in late August, the party received 2.7% of the popular vote, increasing with 0.7% and gaining two MPs, one from Oslo and one from Hordaland.^[63] In total 12 opinion poll measurements said that the party had enough popular support to gain to seats in the parliamen. After seeing these opinion polls, Dahle said he would support the Red-Green Coalition, saying it wouldn't be appropriate to topple the closest thing to socialism in Norwegian politics. On September 11, three days before the election day, Stoltenberg clearly stated that he didn't want the Red-Green Coalition to become dependent of Red in Parliament, if they would gain a representative or two.^[64] Earlier, Ola Borten Moe from the Centre Party told Klassekampen, that neither he nor the party would collaborate or affiliate itself with Red, if they gained a representative in the Parliament.^[65]

By the end of September, Red was accused of election fraud. A members had replaced the Conservative Party tickets with Red tickets in the ballot box located in Bønes Skole in Bergen. Secretary-General of the Conservative Party, Trond R. Hole, said he was "shocked", but he assumed it was an individual and not the party who had planned the fraud. Party leader, Dahle stated that he'd "strongly distance" himself from any individual or individuals who participated in the election fraud. Later, the Conservative Party accused Red of another election fraud, this time in Oslo. While having no proof to back up their claims.^[66]

On election day, Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv said that Red had an average of 1.9%.^[67] When the results were announced, Red gained 36,219 votes, meaning 1.3% of the national vote and made them the largest party without a Parliament representative.^[68] Nationwide, over 12000 of the vote came from Oslo. In the municipal of Hordaland, Red gained gained 2.5% of the vote, a decrease of 0.9 from the previous election runned by the Red Electoral Alliance. Red increased in voters in Troms, Nordland and in Telemark. Dahle, in a public speech said he was not "pleased by the results", but further stated that it would become a "good starting point".^[69]

[edit] Results

[edit] Exit polls

Three election polls, from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), TV2 and Verdens Gang, were released at 9pm Norwegian time on the night of the election. Both NRK and TV2 predicted a slim majority for the ruling Red-Green Coalition over the opposition parties while Verdens Gang showed a dead heat between the blocks, both having 84 seats in Parliament.^[70] Verdens Gang's poll showed the revolutionary socialist party, Red, earning two parliamentary representatives, the party had already promised its support to the Red-Green Coalition before the election.^[71] Due to a manual error, the exit poll used by NRK significantly overestimated the support for Socialist Left.^[72]

[edit] Election results

As in the 2005 elections, the Red-Green Coalition won the election with less votes (this time 47.9%) than the opposition parties (49.5%). Peter N. Myhre of the Progress Party complained that this meant 8 years with a government that had not truly won an election, and called for an overhaul of an electoral system that disproportionately favours the Norwegian periphery. Hanne Marthe Narud, a political scientist at the University of Oslo, identified the result as a consequence of deliberate political planning, and in particular a 2001 compromise in the Storting that balanced proportionality against an intent to over-represent rural areas. She explained to Dagbladet that this trend could be dated as far back as 1917, when it was argued that Oslo's status as the national capital inherently gave it greater influence, and so it should have less representation in parliament relative to rural areas.^[73] Election Researcher Bernt Aardal stated that he had calculated the results of the election without the rural skewness. These results showed that the Labour Party and Progress Party both would lose a representative, while Red and the Liberal Party would gain a representative. This would still give a majority to the Red-Green Coalition.^[74]

The table contains official figures as of 25 September, after 100.00% of the votes have been counted, but before it has been approved by the leaving Storting. Voter turnout was 76.4%.^[5]

e • d  Summary of the September 14, 2009 Norwegian parliamentary election results

	Parties	Votes	%	+/−	Seats	+/−
	Norwegian Labour Party (Det norske Arbeiderparti)	949,049	35.4	+2.7	64	+3
	Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet)	614,717	22.9	+0.9	41	+3
	Conservative Party (Høyre)	462,458	17.2	+3.1	30	+7
	Socialist Left Party (Sosialistisk Venstreparti)	166,361	6.2	−2.6	11	−4
	Centre Party (Senterpartiet)	165,006	6.2	−0.3	11	0
	Christian Democratic Party (Kristelig Folkeparti)	148,748	5.5	−1.2	10	−1
	Liberal Party (Venstre)	104,144	3.9	−2.0	2	−8
	Red (Rødt)	36,219	1.3	+0.1	0	0
	Pensioners' Party (Pensjonistpartiet)	11,900	0.4	0.0	0	0
	Environment Party The Greens (Miljøpartiet De Grønne)	9,286	0.3	+0.2	0	0
	Coastal Party (Kystpartiet)	5,341	0.2	−0.6	0	0
	Christian Unity Party (Kristent Samlingsparti)	4,936	0.2	0.0	0	0
	The Democrats (Demokratene)	2,285	0.1	0.0	0	0
	Communist Party of Norway (Norges Kommunistiske Parti)	697	0.0	0.0	0	0
	Liberal People's Party (Det Liberale Folkeparti)	350	0.0	0.0	0	0
	Contemporary Party (Samtidspartiet)	264	0.0	0.0	0	0
	Center Alliance (Sentrumsalliansen)	241	0.0	0.0	0	0
	Norwegian Patriots (NorgesPatriotene)	183	0.0	0.0	0	0
	Vigrid	179	0.0	0.0	0	0
	Abortion Opponents' List (Abortmotstandernes Liste)	178	0.0	0.0	0	0
	Society Party (Samfunnspartiet)	140	0.0	0.0	0	0
	One (Written) Language (Ett (skrift)språk)	103	0.0	0.0	0	0
	Non-Partisan Deputies (Tverrpolitisk folkevalgte)	64	0.0	0.0	0	0
	Norwegian Republican Alliance (Norsk Republikansk Allianse)	54	0.0	0.0	0	0
		2,682,903			169

[edit] See also

• Norwegian Sami parliamentary election, 2009

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Partibarometer January, 2004-present

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