General election in Norway 2009
The 2009 general election in Norway took place on September 14, 2009. It was the 154th storting election and the 60th election of this loft.
Dates, legislative period, electoral system
The date of the election followed the Norwegian tradition that national elections take place on a Monday in September, preferably on the second or third Monday of the month. In the case of storting elections, the individual municipalities in the state are allowed to open the polling stations on the day before (Sunday) the actual election date. In 2009, 205 of the 430 municipalities made use of this option. 3,530,785 citizens, namely all Norwegians who were 18 years or older at the end of the election year, had the right to vote . From August 10, 2009, citizens in Norway who were prevented from voting on election day were allowed to vote in advance; Norwegian citizens abroad, on Svalbard and Jan Mayen had the opportunity to vote as early as July 1, 2009.
169 members of the Storting , the national Norwegian parliament , were elected for a legislative term of four years . By March 31, 2009, 3,688 candidates from 24 different parties had been nominated for election. 42 percent of the candidates were women.
The Norwegian electoral system is based on the principle of proportional representation . 150 parliamentarians are chosen directly by the electorate, while each of the 19 provinces ( Fylker ) sends an additional representative in the course of a nationwide balance . There is no explicit blocking clause for direct mandates, but only parties with a voting share of at least 4 percent can benefit from the regulation of compensatory mandates. A so-called “modified” version of the Sainte-Laguë seat allocation procedure is used .
Traditionally, the Norwegian Sameting took place parallel to the general election .
Starting position
Election 2005
Since 1961, no single party has won an absolute majority of the seats in Storting. Coalition and minority governments have since taken turns in Norway. In the parliamentary elections of 2005 , the strongest party, the Arbeiderpartiet (Social Democrats), won 61 of the 169 seats. It formed a coalition with the Sosialistisk Venstreparti (Socialist Left Party) and the Senterpartiet (Center Party) and provided the Prime Minister with Jens Stoltenberg . The alliance had a total of 87 seats in parliament, compared to 82 seats for the opposition from the right-wing populist Fremskrittspartiet , conservative Høyre , Kristelig Folkeparti (Christian People's Party) and liberal Venstre . The bourgeois government of Kjell Magne Bondevik , Prime Minister of Norway from 2001 to 2005, was thus replaced.
| Political party | be right | Seats | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| number | % | |||
| Workers' section (DnA) | 862.456 | 32.7 | 61 | |
| Fremskrittspartiet (FrP) | 581,896 | 22.0 | 38 | |
| Høyre (H) | 371.948 | 14.1 | 23 | |
| Sosialistisk Venstreparti (SV) | 232.971 | 8.8 | 15th | |
| Kristelig Folkeparti (KrF) | 178,885 | 6.8 | 11 | |
| Senterpartiet (Sp) | 171.063 | 6.5 | 11 | |
| Venstre (V) | 156.113 | 5.9 | 10 | |
| Others | 82,931 | 3.2 | - | |
| total | 2,638,263 | 100.0 | 169 | |
| voter turnout | 2,649,520 | 77.4 | ||
| Eligible voters | 3,421,741 | 100.0 | ||
Statements before the election
Before the election, Jens Stoltenberg advocated a new edition of his coalition, which the Norwegian media described as red-green . In the event of a majority of the three governing parties, there was much to be said for a continuation of this cooperation, as the two smaller parties (SV, Sp) also advocated further cooperation.
However, there were considerable differences between the coalition parties on several key issues. The plans for offshore oil production near the Lofoten and Vesterålen archipelagos , which had been discussed for a long time in Norway , were welcomed by the Arbeiderpartiet , but were strictly rejected by the Sosialistisk Venstreparti in particular . The smaller parties also presented themselves as skeptical of the EU , while the Social Democrats were positive about membership in the European alliance. SV also opposed a Norwegian NATO mission in southern Afghanistan , which the Workers' Party considered important. Political observers were therefore of the opinion that Jens Stoltenberg would have preferred the model of a minority government without a coalition agreement, especially in the case of a weaker performance of his government alliance. However, Stoltenberg had not made any official statements in this direction.
The situation would have been complicated if the coalition parties were defeated. The four bourgeois parties that made the leap into Storting in 2005 did not form a homogeneous bloc. The largest of the opposition parties, the Fremskrittspartiet , declared through its chairman Siv Jensen that it did not want to support any coalition of which it is not a member. In doing so, she rejected the constellation of a minority government she tolerated consisting of conservatives ( Høyre ), Christian People's Party ( Kristelig Folkeparti ) and social liberals ( Venstre ). On the other hand, Siv Jensen could have envisaged a minority government led by the Fremskrittspartiet if the party had managed to get the strongest faction in the Norwegian parliament.
One option for Jensen was a government in which all parties of the opposition bourgeois camp participated. However, Lars Sponheim , the chairman of Venstre , categorically ruled out this possibility in autumn 2007. Although his party sought a coalition with the Christian People's Party and the Conservatives, it favored a Prime Minister Stoltenberg - instead of a Prime Minister Jensen. Also Dagfinn Høybråten from the Kristelig Folkeparti was not prepared a formal coalition with the Fremskrittspartiet respond because inter alia, their commitment to a reduction in development aid with the abolition of the wealth tax posed too great a hurdle.
The leader of the conservative Høyre party , Erna Solberg , saw her party as a bridge in the bourgeois bloc. She highlighted the similarities in tax, economic and educational policy and encouraged the other opposition parties, including the Fremskrittspartiet , to negotiate with the aim of preventing a socialist government.
Candidate parties
The seven parties represented in Storting ran in all 19 Fylker :
| logo | Political party | Alignment | Top candidate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Arbeiderpartiet (DnA) Labor Party |
social democratic | Jens Stoltenberg | |
 |
Fremskrittspartiet (FrP) progress party |
right-wing populist | Siv Jensen | |
 |
Høyre (H) Conservatives |
conservative | Erna Solberg | |
 |
Sosialistisk Venstreparti (SV) Socialist Left Party |
democratic-socialist | Kristin Halvorsen | |
 |
Kristelig Folkeparti (KrF) Christian People's Party |
Christian Democratic | Dagfinn Høybråten | |
 |
Senterpartiet (Sp) center party |
Peasant party ; green | Liv Signe Navarsete | |
_Teillogo.svg){kind=small} |
Venstre (V) Liberals |
liberal | Lars Sponheim | |
Four other parties that did not belong to the Storting are also running in all Fylker :
| logo | Political party | Alignment | Top candidate (s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Rødt (R) red |
revolutionary-socialist | Torstein Dahle | |
 |
Kystpartiet (Kp) coastal party |
conservative | Kjell Ivar Vestå | |
 |
Miljøpartiet De Grønne (MDG) Environment party The Greens |
green | Hanna Marcussen , Harald A. Nissen | |
|
Democrats The Democrats |
right-wing populist | Vidar Kleppe | ||
13 other parties ran in one or more Fylker (number of Fylker in brackets):
- Kristent samlingsparti ( Christian Unity Party ) - (17)
- Pensjonistpartiet ( pensioners party ) - (12)
- Norges Kommunistiske Parti ( Communist Party of Norway ) - (8)
- Det Liberale Folkeparti ( Liberal People's Party ) - (3)
- Samfunnspartiet ( social party ; anarchist) - (2)
- Abortmotstandernes List ( List of Abortion Opponents ) - (1)
- Tverrpolitisk folkevalgte ( Free group of voters ; EU-critical) - (1)
- Sentrumsalliansen ( alliance of the center ; regional political / social democratic) - (1)
- Samtidspartiet ( contemporary party ; pro-Islamic) - (1)
- NorgesPatriotene ( Norwegian patriots ; nationalist / Islam-critical) - (1)
- Norsk Republikansk Allianse ( Norwegian Republican Alliance ; anti-monarchist) - (1)
- Ett (skrift) språk ( A written language ; linguistic policy) - (1)
- Vigrid ( Vigrid ; neo-pagan racist) - (1)
Survey
According to opinion polls by institutes such as Norstat , Respons Analyze or TNS Gallup , the Fremskrittspartiet was the most popular party in Norway between June and September 2008. In some cases it reached peak values of 32.1 percent. From autumn 2008, however , the Arbeiderpartiet relegated the Frp back to second place.
In the election year, most polling institutes predicted a victory for Jens Stoltenberg's Arbeiderpartiet . A poll on behalf of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation found on September 2, 2009 a vote share of 33.5 percent for the Social Democrats. However, it was questionable whether this result would be sufficient for a victory for the coalition parties. 7.1 percent was calculated for the Sosialistisk Venstreparti and 6.0 percent for the Senterpartiet . These voting shares would have earned the government camp 82 seats. In contrast, there were 87 mandates from the bourgeois opposition parties. According to the poll, the Fremskrittspartiet could expect to be the second strongest party in the country with 25.1 percent of the vote. For Høyre 13.6 percent were predicted, for Kristelig Folkeparti 6.6 percent and for Venstre 5.5 percent.
In the opinion polls, a head-to-head race between the two camps emerged. It was considered unlikely that in addition to the seven parties represented in parliament, other groups would move into the Storting.
| Survey period | government | opposition | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DnA | Sp | SV | H | FrP | KrF | V | Others | |
| August 2009 | 32.3 | 5.9 | 7.5 | 14.1 | 25.6 | 6.1 | 5.3 | 0.0 |
| July 2009 | 33.5 | 5.2 | 7.1 | 13.1 | 27.5 | 6.0 | 4.9 | 0.0 |
| June 2009 | 32.8 | 5.7 | 7.2 | 13.6 | 26.1 | 5.9 | 5.6 | 0.0 |
| May 2009 | 32.9 | 5.0 | 7.5 | 13.8 | 26.4 | 6.0 | 5.4 | 0.0 |
| April 2009 | 32.4 | 5.8 | 7.1 | 13.9 | 27.2 | 6.0 | 4.9 | 0.0 |
| March 2009 | 32.8 | 5.5 | 7.0 | 13.8 | 27.3 | 6.2 | 5.0 | 0.0 |
| February 2009 | 34.0 | 5.0 | 7.1 | 15.2 | 23.9 | 5.9 | 6.1 | 0.0 |
| January 2009 | 33.9 | 5.5 | 7.5 | 16.1 | 23.2 | 6.0 | 4.8 | 0.0 |
| December 2008 | 30.7 | 5.7 | 7.8 | 17.4 | 23.7 | 6.3 | 5.5 | 0.4 |
| November 2008 | 31.4 | 5.5 | 7.8 | 15.9 | 24.2 | 6.6 | 5.8 | 1.4 |
| October 2008 | 30.6 | 5.3 | 7.3 | 16.1 | 26.7 | 5.6 | 5.5 | 1.2 |
| September 2008 | 28.9 | 5.0 | 6.3 | 15.2 | 29.9 | 5.7 | 5.9 | 1.5 |
| Election 2005 | 32.7 | 6.5 | 8.8 | 14.1 | 22.0 | 6.8 | 5.9 | 3.2 |
Election result
The red-green government coalition defended its majority with 86 seats, while the bourgeoisie won 83 seats. The Arbeiderpartiet increased slightly with 35.4 percent of the votes compared to 2005. The Fremskrittspartiet performed worse than predicted, but still achieved the best result in its history with 22.9 percent. The conservative Høyre experienced the largest increase in votes from all parties; With an increase of over three percentage points, it had a share of 17.2 percent of the vote. The Sosialistisk Venstreparti fell significantly in favor of the electorate, it came to 6.2 percent; on the other hand, the Senterpartiet was able to hold out with the same percentage of votes. Venstre slipped below the 4 percent mark, and Kristelig Folkeparti also failed to achieve the result of the last election with 5.5 percent. The socialist party Rødt improved to 1.3 percent. The share of other parties in the election result decreased by 1.3 percent. This meant that the small parties in particular were among the losers in the parliamentary elections, while the large parties, above all Høyre with seven additional seats, benefited the most.
The turnout was 76.4 percent.
| Political party | be right | Seats | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| number | % | +/- | number | +/- | ||
| Workers' section (DnA) | 949,049 | 35.4 | +2.8 | 64 | +3 | |
| Fremskrittspartiet (FrP) | 614.717 | 22.9 | +0.8 | 41 | +3 | |
| Høyre (H) | 462.458 | 17.2 | +3.2 | 30th | +7 | |
| Sosialistisk Venstreparti (SV) | 166,361 | 6.2 | −2.6 | 11 | −4 | |
| Senterpartiet (Sp) | 165.006 | 6.2 | −0.3 | 11 | - | |
| Kristelig Folkeparti (KrF) | 148,748 | 5.5 | −1.1 | 10 | −1 | |
| Venstre (V) | 104.144 | 3.9 | −2.0 | 2 | −8 | |
| Rødt (R) | 36,219 | 1.3 | +0.1 | - | - | |
| Pensjonistpartiet (Pp) | 11,900 | 0.4 | - | - | - | |
| Miljøpartiet De Grønne (MDG) | 9,286 | 0.3 | +0.2 | - | - | |
| Kystpartiet (Kp) | 5,341 | 0.2 | −0.6 | - | - | |
| Kristent Samlingsparti (KSp) | 4,936 | 0.2 | - | - | - | |
| Democrats | 2,285 | 0.1 | - | - | - | |
| Norges Kommunistiske Parti (NKP) | 697 | 0.0 | - | - | - | |
| Det Liberale Folkeparti (DLF) | 350 | 0.0 | - | - | - | |
| Samtidspartiet | 264 | 0.0 | - | - | - | |
| Sentrumsalliansen | 241 | 0.0 | - | - | - | |
| NorgesPatriotene (NP) | 183 | 0.0 | - | - | - | |
| Vigrid | 179 | 0.0 | - | - | - | |
| Abortmotstandernes list | 178 | 0.0 | - | - | - | |
| Samfunnspartiet | 140 | 0.0 | - | - | - | |
| Ett (script) språk | 103 | 0.0 | - | - | - | |
| Tverrpolitisk Folkevalgte (TvF) | 64 | 0.0 | - | - | - | |
| Norsk Republikansk Allianse | 54 | 0.0 | - | - | - | |
| total | 2,682,903 | 100.0 | 169 | |||
| Valid votes | 2,682,903 | 99.5 | ||||
| Invalid votes | 13,565 | 0.5 | ||||
| voter turnout | 2,696,468 | 76.4 | ||||
| Eligible voters | 3,530,785 | 100.0 | ||||
| Source: | ||||||
Reactions
Jens Stoltenberg announced that he would like to continue the coalition and keep the key positions.
The chairman of Venstre , Lars Sponheim, announced his resignation at the next party conference in spring 2010.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Valg 2009 Landsoversikt - Stortingsvalget ( Norwegian ) Regjeringen.no . Retrieved September 15, 2009.
- ↑ Overview of municipalities and number of election days. (PDF file; 33 kB) Regjeringen.no 2009 (accessed on September 13, 2009)
- ↑ a b Preliminary final result on TV2 , accessed on September 15, 2009.
- ↑ Fire av ti stortingskandidater er kvinner Statistisk sentralbyrå, June 26, 2009
- ↑ Cf. Arne Fliflet, Kongeriket Norges grunnlov. Grunnloven med commentary , Oslo 2005, p. 265
- ↑ Rødgrønn press conference on fire nye år ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Dagsavisen, August 4, 2009
- ↑ a b Jens kan gå fra rødgrønt til lilla ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Dagsavisen, August 28, 2009
- ↑ Frp beredt til å regjere alene ( Memento of the original from November 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Aftenposten, December 27, 2007
- ↑ Sponheim vil heller ha Jens and Siv Aftenposten, October 1, 2007
- ↑ KrF utelukker samarbeid med Frp ( Memento of the original dated May 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Aftenposten, April 28, 2009
- ↑ Bleik arrogant og totalitarian Dagbladet, 30. April 2009
- ↑ Borgerlig samling mot Jens ( Memento of the original from September 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ernasolberg.nettblogg.no, October 3, 2007
- ↑ Norway's Opposition Progress Party Leads All ( Memento of the original from July 23, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. www.angus-reid.com, July 11, 2008
- ↑ Progress Party Heads Race in Norway ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. www.angus-reid.com, September 26, 2008
- ↑ Top Parties Virtually Tied in Norway ( Memento of the original from December 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. www.angus-reid.com, September 7, 2009
- ↑ Norwegian Opposition Clings to Lead ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. www.angus-reid.com, September 10, 2008
- ↑ NRK political party barometer, September 2, 2009 (Norwegian; accessed on September 6, 2009)
- ↑ Polls Poll of polls (Norwegian)
- ↑ Helt for jævlig å ikke få avsluttet livsverket mitt NRK, September 16, 2009 (accessed on September 16, 2009)
Web links
- Facta om stortingsvalget 2009 Information from the Norwegian Ministry of Local and Regional Authorities on the 2009 parliamentary elections on the Regjeringen.no website (Norwegian)
- Country analysis Norway by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, September 2009 (German) (PDF file; 509 kB)
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