2011 Norwegian local elections

Nationwide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway on 12 September 2011.[1] Several municipalities also opened the polling booths on 11 September.[1] For polling stations this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections ran concurrently. In addition, an advisory referendum was held in Aust-Agder to determine whether to merge the county with Vest-Agder.

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Overall, the Conservative Party made the greatest gains, and the Labour Party also advanced and remained the largest party. On the other hand, the Progress Party and the Socialist Left Party suffered severe setbacks.[2]

Term of office was 1 January 2012 until 31 December 2015.

New features

Electronic voting

Electronic voting over the internet was tried out in certain areas for the first time in Norway, with the ultimate goal of implementing full general availability for internet voting for the 2017 parliamentary elections.[3]

Voting age of 16

In 2008, Magnhild Meltveit Kleppa, the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development announced that she was considering lowering the voting age from 18 to 16 in some municipalities as a trial. Three municipalities had applied for this in the 2007 election, but were turned down.[4]

Parliament decided to give adolescents of age 16 and 17 the right to vote in selected municipalities. Of 143 applicants, 20 municipalities plus Longyearbyen on Svalbard were selected for the trial. The municipalities taking part in the trial are:[5]

  1. Marker in Østfold
  2. Lørenskog in Akershus
  3. Hamar in Hedmark
  4. Vågå in Oppland
  5. Sigdal in Buskerud
  6. Re in Vestfold
  7. Porsgrunn in Telemark
  8. Grimstad in Aust-Agder
  9. Mandal in Vest-Agder
  10. Gjesdal and Stavanger in Rogaland
  11. Austevoll in Hordaland
  12. Luster in Sogn og Fjordane
  13. Ålesund in Møre og Romsdal
  14. Osen in Sør-Trøndelag
  15. Namdalseid in Nord-Trøndelag
  16. Tysfjord in Nordland
  17. Gáivuotna – Kåfjord in Troms
  18. Hammerfest and Kautokeino in Finnmark.

Election campaign

The issue of how and when the campaign would be conducted was affected by the 2011 Norway attacks on 22 July, which killed 77 people, most of them young supporters of the national Labour Party. On 24 July, the prime minister, the president of the Storting, and the parliamentary leaders of the political parties met for the first time to discuss rules for the political debates which would take place. Liv Signe Navarsete predicted that the election campaign would be considerably muted.[6] On 25 July, the parliamentary leaders of the political parties agreed to delay the start of the campaign until mid-August and to cancel the school debates, because of the 22 July attacks. The school elections were, however, not cancelled.[7]

Issues

One of the bigger issues for the local elections was a controversy about local hospitals in Møre og Romsdal, involving the cities Molde and Kristiansund which has hospitals today.[8] The current Red-Green government postponed the planned building of a new hospital in Molde, instead considering moving vital functions to it from Kristiansund, the local population in Molde saw the postponement as a broken promise, while the locals in Kristiansund wanted a common hospital instead due to the latter issue.[8] In early 2011, the Labour Party saw a shock opinion poll in Romsdal (which includes the city Molde) of a mere 5.8% support, which fell further in April to 1%.[8] The handling of the controversy by the party, and particularly its Minister of Health and Care Services, Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen, was seen as the reason for the fall.[8]

Polling
Polling Firm Date Source Labour Party Conservative Party Progress Party Centre Party Christian Democratic Party Socialist Left Party Liberal Party Others
Last Election 2007-09 29.6% 19.3% 17.5% 8.0% 6.4% 6.2% 5.9% 7.1%
TNS Gallup 2010-01 31.9% 25.0% 17.5% 6.4% 4.9% 6.1% 3.6% 4.6%
TNS Gallup 2010-07 25.9% 27.1% 20.0% 6.1% 4.5% 5.8% 4.9% 5.7%
Norfakta 2010-09 27.5% 27.4% 18.5% 5.8% 5.2% 5.3% 5.6% 4.7%
Norfakta 2011-01 22.5% 30.1% 17.5% 5.4% 4.9% 6.7% 6.3% 6.6%
TNS Gallup 2011-02 28.7% 27.4% 16.0% 7.7% 4.6% 5.3% 5.4% 2.7%
Response 2011-02 26.8% 25.4% 19.4% 7.0% 6.8% 5.4% 5.1% 4.1%
TNS Gallup 2011-03 26.8% 29.3% 16.1% 7.6% 5.1% 5.6% 5.6% 3.9%
Response 2011-03 28.4% 28.7% 17.0% 6.8% 4.7% 5.7% 5.4% 3.3%
Sentio 2011-03 28.9% 23.7% 17.7% 6.9% 6.1% 4.2% 6.0% 6.5%
TNS Gallup 2011-04 28.9% 27.0% 15.3% 6.4% 4.9% 6.5% 5.6% 5.4%
InFact 2011-04 28.5% 23.5% 18.9% 6.8% 5.0% 5.5% 5.8% 5.9%
Norstat 2011-05 30.6% 28.9% 13.6% 6.4% 4.6% 4.7% 5.5% 5.6%
TNS Gallup 2011-05 27.3% 28.1% 15.2% 6.6% 5.0% 6.5% 5.2% 6.0%
TNS Gallup 2011-06 27.0% 31.0% 13.2% 5.3% 6.9% 6.5% 4.9% 5.1%
InFact 2011-06 29.0% 26.8% 20.6% 5.1% 5.0% 6.0% 3.7% 3.8%
InFact 2011-07 24.9% 27.0% 16.9% 7.5% 5.7% 5.2% 6.1% 6.7%
TNS Gallup1 2011-07 35.4% 23.3% 13.6% 6.2% 4.7% 6.0% 5.9% 4.9%
Norstat 2011-08 34.2% 25.2% 16.0% 5.6% 4.5% 3.6% 5.0% 6.0%
TNS Gallup 2011-08 33.8% 24.9% 12.7% 4.9% 6.0% 6.8% 6.2% 4.7%
InFact 2011-08 31.6% 24.5% 17.5% 5.8% 5.1% 4.7% 5.5% 5.2%
Synovate 2011-08 34.0% 26.0% 16.0% 4.9% 6.1% 4.7% 3.9% 4.5%
InFact 2011-08 32.4% 25.0% 12.9% 5.7% 7.2% 6.3% 5.3% 5.2%
TNS Gallup 2011-08 30.9% 25.0% 14.0% 6.5% 6.5% 4.0% 6.3% 6.8%
TNS Gallup 2011-09 31.3% 27.3% 12.8% 5.9% 6.0% 4.5% 6.9% 4.5%
Synovate 2011-09 31.0% 25.1% 15.3% 6.2% 7.0% 4.4% 6.1% 4.9%
TNS Gallup 2011-09 31.9% 27.9% 12.8% 6.0% 6.5% 4.1% 6.7% 4.1%
Response 2011-09 32.1% 25.9% 16.3% 5.6% 5.9% 3.7% 5.5% 5.0%
TNS Gallup 2011-09 34.3% 27.1% 11.3% 5.2% 6.2% 3.6% 5.7% 6.6%
TNS Gallup 2011-09 33.3% 26.2% 12.3% 5.4% 5.6% 4.2% 6.2% 6.8%

1This was the first poll since the attacks in Norway.

Results

Municipal elections
 Summary of the 12 September 2011 municipal election results
Parties Votes Seats
# % ± %
  Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) 765,289 31.7 +2.0 3,373
  Conservative Party (Høyre) 676,059 28.0 +8.7 2,349
  Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet) 274,555 11.4 −6.1 1,143
  Centre Party (Senterpartiet) 163,246 6.8 −1.2 1,419
  Liberal Party (Venstre) 151,406 6.3 +0.5 640
  Christian Democratic Party (Kristelig Folkeparti) 134,653 5.6 −0.7 656
  Socialist Left Party (Sosialistisk Venstreparti) 98,225 4.1 −2.0 364
  Red Party (Rødt) 37,241 1.5 −0.2 57
  Green Party (Miljøpartiet De Grønne) 21,785 0.9 +0.6 18
  Pensioners' Party (Pensjonistpartiet) 19,851 0.8 −0.1 50
  Democrats in Norway (Demokratene i Norge) 4,327 0.2 – 8
  Coastal Party (Kystpartiet) 4,070 0.2 0.0 41
  Others 66,449 2.7 – 663
Total 2,417,156 100.0 – 10,781
Turnout 2,417,156 63.6
Electorate 3,799,742
Source: Government of Norway, Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, TV2

County elections
 Summary of the 12 September 2011 county election results
Parties Votes Seats
# % ± %
  Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) 745,087 33.2 +2.4 273
  Conservative Party (Høyre) 620,504 27.6 +8.9 210
  Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet) 263,915 11.8 −6.8 96
  Centre Party (Senterpartiet) 141,514 6.3 −1.6 61
  Christian Democratic Party (Kristelig Folkeparti) 129,932 5.8 −0.9 47
  Liberal Party (Venstre) 127,226 5.7 +0.1 46
  Socialist Left Party (Sosialistisk Venstreparti) 96,890 4.3 −2.2 34
  Red Party (Rødt) 38,723 1.7 −0.3 7
  Green Party (Miljøpartiet De Grønne) 28,952 1.3 +0.7 2
  Pensioners' Party (Pensjonistpartiet) 20,840 0.9 −0.2 3
  Coastal Party (Kystpartiet) 8,446 0.4 −0.1 3
  Democrats in Norway (Demokratene i Norge) 6,033 0.3 – 1
  Sunnmøre List 5,718 0.3 0.0 3
  Christian Unity Party (Kristent Samlingsparti) 4,829 0.2 +0.1 0
  Byluftslisten 1,436 0.1 – 0
  Communist Party of Norway (Norges Kommunistiske Parti) 1,282 0.1 0.0 0
  Sami People's Party (Sámeálbmot bellodat, Samefolkets Parti) 1,233 0.1 0.0 1
  Vestfoldlisten mot bomringer 844 0.0 0.0 0
  Society Democrats (Samfunnsdemokratane) 799 0.0 0.0 0
  Society Party (Samfunnspartiet) 289 0.0 0.0 0
  Liberal People's Party (Det Liberale Folkeparti) 247 0.0 0.0 0
Total 2,243,337 100.0 – 787
Turnout 2,244,739 59.2
Electorate 3,789,746
Source: Government of Norway

References
  1. "Valgportalen: valg.no". Regjeringen.no. 5 March 2007. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  2. Sørlie, Eivind; Vibeke Buan (13 September 2011). "Slik endte kampen om de største byene" (in Norwegian). Aftenposten. Archived from the original on 12 April 2012. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
  3. "Prosjektdirektiv for e-valg 2011" (PDF). Kommunal- og Regionaldepartementet. 11 February 2009.
  4. Helljesen, Geir (26 February 2008). "Vil gi 16-åringer stemmerett" (in Norwegian). NRK. Retrieved 3 April 2010.
  5. "Forsøk med nedsatt stemmerettsalder til 16 år ved kommunestyrevalget 2011" (in Norwegian). Kommunal- og regionaldepartementet. Retrieved 3 April 2010.
  6. Haugen, Eivind A.; Kirsten Karlsen (24 July 2011). "- Den politiske debatten skal ikke knebles" (in Norwegian). Dagbladet. Retrieved 24 July 2011.
  7. Sandvik, Siv; Anders Malm (25 July 2011). "Partiene utsetter valgkampen til midten av august" (in Norwegian). NRK. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  8. Gjestad, Fred C. (25 April 2011). "1 % oppslutning for Arbeiderpartiet". Aftenposten (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 29 April 2011. Retrieved 26 April 2011.

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