Red-Green Coalition wins majority in Norway

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Red-green alliance forges ahead

Aftenposten Norway
September 12, 2005

As Monday night drew to a close and 89.5 percent of the vote was counted in Norway's national election, the Labor-led left-center coalition was moving towards a parliamentary majority and a shift in government.

The prognosis at 11:30 p.m. pointed to an 88-81 majority for the Labor-Socialist Left-Center alliance, comfortably over the 85 seats needed for a majority.


Labor (Ap) and the Progress Party (Fr.P) were the night's big winners, with the former regaining their position as the nation's dominant party and the Fr.P rising to become the leading right-wing party.

The Conservatives and Christian Democrats, the two major parties in the governing center-right coalition, were the election losers. The Conservatives stand to lose about a third of their seats, and the Christian Democrats half. Their partners, the Liberal Party, could celebrate, with projections indicating that they would go from two parliamentary seats to ten.

Election day polls painted the possibility of fringe parties the Red Electoral Alliance or Coastal Party holding crucial power in the case of a deadlock between the two blocs, but now it appears that neither party will even win a seat in the Storting, Norway's parliament.

The election turn-out, measured at 11:15 p.m., was 75 percent. The 2001 election saw a turn-out of 75.5 percent, compared to 78.3 percent in 1997.

Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, asked how his government could fall to a majority alternative after Norway had been named the best country in the world to live in by the United Nations' human development index for the fifth consecutive year, said this was an excellent question which he could not answer.

After midnight Bondevik said that if the result projections proved accurate he would notify King Harald on Tuesday morning that the current government would tender its resignation and step down after presenting the national budget for 2006 in about four weeks time.


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Bondevik bows out

Aftenposten Norway
September 12, 2005

It's official: Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said he'd turn in his resignation to King Harald on Tuesday and leave behind a lifetime in politics. Results of Monday's election left him and the Conservatives with a major defeat, and Jens Stoltenberg of the Labour Party will take over as premier in mid-October.


It wouldn't be quite right, however, to say that Norwegian voters took a sharp left turn at the polls on Monday. Labour's government partner, the Socialist Left (SV), took a pounding and lost a third of its seats in Parliament, while Norway's most right-leaning party, the Progress Party, scored its biggest election victory ever.

Carl I Hagen's Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet) ended up with 22.1 percent of the vote and 37 seats in Parliament, up 11 from the last election. It will now have at least one representative from every county in the country, and clearly ranks as the largest non-socialist party in Norway.

Norway's smallest non-socialist party, the Liberals (Venstre), also won their most votes ever, ending with 6 percent of the vote and quadrupling their number of seats in Parliament. They were the only government party to do well, and perhaps not coincidentally were also the only one to indicate that they could cooperate with the Progress Party.

The Conservatives (Høyre), meanwhile, suffered their worst election ever, ending with just 14 percent of the vote and a loss of 15 seats in Parliament. Bondevik's Christian Democrats (Kristelig Folkepartiet) were all but humiliated, ending with just 6.8 percent of the vote.

Many political analysts said voters were tired of Bondevik and his Christian Democrats, and punished the Conservatives for continuing to support them instead of cooperating with the Progress Party. The Christian Democrats, meanwhile, continued to blame Hagen and his Progress Party for splitting the non-socialist side.


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Sami election tight as well

Aftenposten Norway
September 12, 2005

Norway's indigenous Sami people were also voting Monday in their own elections for the Sami parliament (Sametinget). The passage earlier this year of the new Finnmark Law, granting the Samis more say over their Arctic homelands, adds a new dimension this time around.

The Sami parliament has existed for 16 years, and its 43 members will now have new powers under the new law (Finnmarksloven) to influence the use of state lands in northern Norway.

Until now, around 96 percent of the land in Norway's most northerly county of Finnmark has been administered by the state. The new Finnmark Law transfers that administration to a commission made up of six persons, with three coming from the county council and three from the Sami parliament.

At stake are important decisions regarding everything from water and grazing rights, mining and other use of the Arctic lands.

The Norske Samers Riskforbund (NSR) has always held a majority in the Sami parliament and its presidential post. They aim to retain that, but the Labour Party was running a tight race against NSR.

NSR was campaigning heavily for its presidential candidate, Aili Keskitalo, who would be the first woman to lead Sametinget. If Labour wins, though, it would mark the first time a "Norwegian" party won the presidential post with its candidate Egil Olli.

The roughly 12,500 people eligible to vote in the Sami elections include Norwegian citizens with at least one great-grandparent who had Samisk as his or her native language.

The Sami elections involve 17 different parties in 13 jurisdictions from Southern Norway to Kautokeino. Geographical challenges mean that election results weren't expected for about 10 days.


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