Norwegian parliamentary election, 2005

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Parliamentary elections were held in Norway on 12 September 2005. More than 3.4 million Norwegians were eligible for vote for the Storting, the parliament of Norway. The new Storting has 169 members, an increase of four over the 2001 election.

The election was won by the opposition centre-left Red-Green Coalition, dominated by the Norwegian Labour Party, which took 87 seats. The three-party centre-right government coalition won 44 seats and the populist Progress Party won 38, becoming the largest opposition party. Voter turnout was 77.1 percent, an increase of 2 percent compared to the 2001 elections.

In terms of votes, the election was closer than the result in terms of seats. The government coalition obtained 26.8 percent of the vote, while the Progress Party polled 22.1 percent, making a combined centre-right total of 48.9 percent. The Red-Green Coalition polled 47.9 percent of the vote, while winning 51.5 percent of the seats. The Red Electoral Alliance polled 1.2 percent making the combined left total 49.1.

This disparity is caused by the Norwegian electoral system, which assigns seats according to a formula favouring the geographically larger counties with small populations that are located proportionally further from the the capital, and disadvantages Oslo and more dense populated counties.

1 Results
2 Electoral Campaign
3 References

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Results

	Summary of the 12 September 2005 Storting election results	Votes	%	+/-	Seats	+/-
	Norwegian Labour Party (Det norske Arbeiderpartiet)	862,757	32.7	+8.4	61	+18
	Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet)	582,284	22.1	+7.4	38	+12
	Conservative Party (Høyre)	372,008	14.1	−7.1	23	−15
	Socialist Left Party (Sosialistisk Venstreparti)	233,069	8.8	−3.7	15	−8
	Christian People's Party (Kristelig Folkeparti)	178,889	6.8	−5.6	11	−11
	Centre Party (Senterpartiet)	171,124	6.5	+0.9	11	+1
	Liberal Party (Venstre)	156,081	5.9	+2.0	10	+8
	Red Electoral Alliance (Rød Valgallianse)	32,365	1.2	0.0	0	0
	Coastal Party (Kystpartiet)	21,946	0.8	−0.9	0	−1
	Pensioners' Party (Pensjonistpartiet)	13,559	0.5		0	0
	Christian Unity Party (Kristent Samlingsparti)	3,865	0.1		0	0
	Environment Party The Greens (Miljøpartiet De Grønne)	3,652	0.1		0	0
	The Democrats (Demokratene)	2,706	0.1		0	0
	Abortion Opponents' List (Abortmostandernes Liste)	1,932	0.1		0	0
	Communist Party of Norway (Norges Kommunistiske Parti)	1,066	0.0		0	0
	Reform Party (Reformpartiet)	727	0.0		0	0
	Sami People Party (Sámeálbmot bellodat, Samefolkets Parti)	660	0.0		0	0
	Liberal People's Party (Det Liberale Folkeparti)	213	0.0		0	0
	Norwegian Republican Alliance (Norsk Republikansk Allianse)	94	0.0		0	0
	Beer Unity Party (Pilsens Samlingsparti)	65	0.0		0	0
	Society Party (Samfunnspartiet)	43	0.0		0	0
Total		2,639,105	100%		169

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Winners

The new Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg (left), is congratulated by the former Prime Minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik.

Jens Stoltenberg arrives at Stortinget on the election night.

Party leader debate at Stortinget to discuss the results.

The red-green coalition was the winner of the election and formed a majority government, with Jens Stoltenberg as prime minister, on October 17, 2005, as soon as a national budget for 2006 had been proposed by the old government.
The Norwegian Labour Party obtained a result that brings 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 together.
The Liberal Party gained a substantial amount of seats in its most successful election since 1965. The large number of additional seats won with only a modest gain in votes came as a result of passing the threshold of 4% ("sperregrensen") of the votes required for a party to be allocated additional 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.

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Losers

The right-wing suffers a defeat well beyond its numbers, with almost half of its votes for the Progress party, which has been able to offer only external support to the Bondevik government; the other parties shunned any possible formal inclusion in the government coalition over differing views in several issues.
The Socialist Left Party obtains only a disappointing result, after polls that showed the party well beyond 15% at times during the electoral campaign.
The Conservatives lose a large share of votes and are no longer the main right-wing party, surpassed by the Progress Party.
The Christian Democratic Party almost halves its votes, and suffers one of the worst defeats ever.
The Coastal Party loses its only representative in the parliament.
The Red Electoral Alliance does not manage to obtain a seat in the parliament.

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Trivia

Saera Khan from the Norwegian Labour Party is now the only representative with a minority background. She replaced Afshan Rafiq who did not make it to the Storting as the Conservatives, which she represents, lost a large share of votes.
Anna-Kristin Ljunggren, 21 years old, becomes the youngest parliamentarian in Norwegian history (along with Trond Jensrud, who was 21 when he was elected in 1989). She was elected with the Labour party.
Two key politicians of the Christian Democratic Party lose their seats: Knut Arild Hareide, environment minister, and Valgerd Svarstad Haugland, former secretary of the party. Haugland has declared this event marks the end of her political career.
The highest vote percentage for a party in a municipality has been in Årdal, where Labour obtained 72.4% [1].
Vera Lysklætt was elected from Finnmark for the Liberal Party on a levelling mandate with only 826 votes from her own constituency (2.2%).

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Electoral Campaign

Before the election, Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik led a coalition government consisting of the Conservative Party (38 seats), 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 September 11, 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 August 10 to September 9, 2005. 452,488 votes were cast in advance, a decrease of approx 52,000 since the 2001 election. [2]

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