Norwegian parliamentary election, 2005

Norwegian Parliamentary election, 2005

11 and 12 September 2005
All 169 seats to the Norwegian Parliament 85 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Jens Stoltenberg Carl I. Hagen Erna Solberg Party Labour Progress Conservative Last election 43 seats, 24.3% 26 seats, 14.6% 38 seats, 21.2% Seats won 61 38 23 Seat change 18 12 15 Popular vote 862,757 582,284 372,008 Percentage 32.7% 22.1% 14.1%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Kristin Halvorsen Dagfinn Høybråten Åslaug Haga Party Socialist Left Christian Democratic Centre Last election 23 seats, 12.5% 22 seats, 12.4% 10 seats, 5.6% Seats won 15 11 11 Seat change 8 11 1 Popular vote 232,971 178,885 171,063 Percentage 8.8% 6.8% 6.5%   Seventh party   Leader Lars Sponheim Party Liberal Last election 2 seats, 3.9% Seats won 10 Seat change 8 Popular vote 156,113 Percentage 5.9%
Prime Minister before election Kjell Magne Bondevik Christian Democratic Elected Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg Labour

Parliamentary elections were held in Norway on 11 and 12 September 2005.^[1] The result was a victory for the opposition centre-left Red-Green Coalition, which got 48.0% of the votes and won 87 out of 169 seats, dominated by the Labour Party's 61 seats. The three-party centre-right government coalition won 44 seats and the right wing Progress Party won 38, becoming the largest opposition party. Voter turnout was 77.1%, an increase of 2 percentage points compared to the 2001 elections.

Campaign

Before the election, Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik led a coalition government consisting of the Conservative Party (38 seats in parliament), Christian People's Party (22 seats and supplied the prime minister) and the Liberals (2 seats), with the conditional support of the right-wing Progress Party. Between them, the three main parties of the coalition held 62 seats in the outgoing 165-seat Storting. The Progress Party held an additional 26, giving the four parties a majority when acting together.

Divisions within the coalition led to the temporary withdrawal of support by the Progress Party in November 2004, in response to what they saw as the government's underfunding of hospitals; an agreement was later reached. The government also attracted criticism for its handling of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, in which several Norwegians died, with the prime minister admitting to mistakes in his government's delayed reaction to the disaster.

The question of private schools was controversial in 2005, with the opposition Labour Party, Socialist Left Party and Centre Party rejecting the government's plan to allow schools other than those offering an "alternative education", or those founded on religious beliefs, to become private.

Amidst a decline in the personal popularity of the prime minister, opinion polls in early 2005 indicated a clear lead for the Labour Party. Its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, was prime minister from March 2000 to October 2001, and enjoyed widespread public support in the run-up to the election. Polling suggests that the Labour, Socialist Left and Centre parties could form a red–green coalition, which would command a majority in the Storting. Labour and Socialist Left have pledged to maintain their allegiance with the Centre party even if the latter were not necessary to obtain a majority.

In June the leader of the Progress Party, Carl I. Hagen, said his party would not support a new coalition if Bondevik re-emerges as the prime minister after the election, implicitly pointing at Erna Solberg, leader of the conservative party as a better candidate.

A week before the elections, the Socialist Left Party experienced a fall in popularity on recent polls. The Liberals and Conservative Party gained popularity on the polls. As of 11 September 2005, the day before the election, the opinion polls indicated a dead run between the red-green coalition and the right wing.

Advance voting was possible from 10 August to 9 September 2005. 452,488 votes were cast in advance, a decrease of approx 52,000 since the 2001 election.

Results

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Labour Party	862,456	32.7	61	+18
Progress Party	581,896	22.1	38	+12
Conservative Party	371,948	14.1	23	–15
Socialist Left Party	232,971	8.8	15	–8
Christian People's Party	178,885	6.8	11	–11
Centre Party	171,063	6.5	11	+1
Liberal Party	156,113	5.9	10	+8
Red Electoral Alliance	32,355	1.2	0	0
Coastal Party	21,948	0.8	0	–1
Pensioners' Party	13,556	0.5	0	0
Christian Unity Party	3,911	0.1	0	0
Environment Party The Greens	3,652	0.1	0	0
Democrats	2,705	0.1	0	New
Abortion Opponents' List	1,934	0.1	0	New
Communist Party	1,070	0.0	0	0
Reform Party	727	0.0	0	New
Sami People's Party	659	0.0	0	New
Liberal People's Party	213	0.0	0	0
Norwegian Republican Alliance	92	0.0	0	New
Beer Unity Party	65	0.0	0	New
Society Party	44	0.0	0	New
Invalid/blank votes	11,257	–	–	–
Total valid votes	2,638,263	100	169	+4
Registered voters/turnout	3,421,741	77.4	–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver, European Elections Database

Winners

Election results by county

• The red-green coalition was the winner of the election and formed a majority government, with Jens Stoltenberg as prime minister, on 17 October 2005, as soon as a national budget for 2006 had been proposed by the old government.
• The Labour Party obtained a result that brought it back into the position of "the largest Norwegian party, not just the largest of many middle-sized ones".
• The Progress Party obtained its best result ever, surpassing the Conservatives by a large margin and becoming almost as large as the parties in the Bondevik government combined.
• The Liberal Party gained a substantial number of seats in its most successful election since 1965. The large number of additional seats won with only a modest gain in votes came partly as a result of passing the threshold of 4% of the votes required for a party to be allocated leveling seats to bring their representation into proportion to the overall national vote (as opposed to direct regional mandates allocated on the basis of number of votes in the specific region). Venstre got six direct regional mandates and four allocated additional mandates.

References

• Complete, official results from the website of the Norwegian parliament, stortinget.no, in Norwegian.
• Leftist Coalition Seems to Be the Winner in Norway's Election. New York Times. September 13, 2005.
• Bondevik bows out. Aftenposten. 13 September 2005.
• Red-green alliance forges ahead. Aftenposten. 13 September 2005.
• Labour gains in new poll. Aftenposten. 5 September 2005.
• Labour stealing partner's votes. Aftenposten. 24 June 2005.
• Hagen won't back Bondevik. Aftenposten. 20 June 2005.
• Labour Down, Progress Party Surges in Norway. Angus Reid Consultants. 12 June 2005.
• Norway — Red–Green Alliance could get majority. Angus Reid Consultants. Retrieved 5 June 2005.
• Left wing alliance advances despite Labour retreat. Aftenposten. March 30, 2005.
• Labour soars in latest poll. Aftenposten, August 26, 2005.

Further reading

• Sitter, Nick (May 2006). "Norway's Storting Election of September 2005: Back to the Left?". West European Politics. 29 (3): 573–580. doi:10.1080/01402380600620700.