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2011 Norwegian local elections

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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.

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

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Electronic voting

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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

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

Election campaign

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Example of ballot paper (Socialist Left Party)

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

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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]

Debates

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2011 Norwegian local election debates
Date Time Organizers  P  Present    I  Invitee  N  Non-invitee 
Ap Sp H Sv KrF Frp V Rv Refs
9 Sep ??? NRK P
Jens Stoltenberg 		P
Liv Signe Navarsete 		P
Erna solberg 		P
Kristin Halvorsen 		P
Knut Arild Hareide 		P
Siv Jensen 		P
Trine Skei Grande 		P
Turid Thomassen 		[9]

Polling

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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 [1] 29.6% 19.3% 17.5% 8.0% 6.4% 6.2% 5.9% 7.1%
TNS Gallup 2010-01 [2] 31.9% 25.0% 17.5% 6.4% 4.9% 6.1% 3.6% 4.6%
TNS Gallup 2010-07 [3] 25.9% 27.1% 20.0% 6.1% 4.5% 5.8% 4.9% 5.7%
Norfakta 2010-09 [4] 27.5% 27.4% 18.5% 5.8% 5.2% 5.3% 5.6% 4.7%
Norfakta 2011-01 [5] 22.5% 30.1% 17.5% 5.4% 4.9% 6.7% 6.3% 6.6%
TNS Gallup 2011-02 [6] 28.7% 27.4% 16.0% 7.7% 4.6% 5.3% 5.4% 2.7%
Response 2011-02 [7] 26.8% 25.4% 19.4% 7.0% 6.8% 5.4% 5.1% 4.1%
TNS Gallup 2011-03 [8] 26.8% 29.3% 16.1% 7.6% 5.1% 5.6% 5.6% 3.9%
Response 2011-03 [9] 28.4% 28.7% 17.0% 6.8% 4.7% 5.7% 5.4% 3.3%
Sentio 2011-03 [10] 28.9% 23.7% 17.7% 6.9% 6.1% 4.2% 6.0% 6.5%
TNS Gallup 2011-04 [11] 28.9% 27.0% 15.3% 6.4% 4.9% 6.5% 5.6% 5.4%
InFact 2011-04 [12] 28.5% 23.5% 18.9% 6.8% 5.0% 5.5% 5.8% 5.9%
Norstat 2011-05 [13] 30.6% 28.9% 13.6% 6.4% 4.6% 4.7% 5.5% 5.6%
TNS Gallup 2011-05 [14] 27.3% 28.1% 15.2% 6.6% 5.0% 6.5% 5.2% 6.0%
TNS Gallup 2011-06 [15] 27.0% 31.0% 13.2% 5.3% 6.9% 6.5% 4.9% 5.1%
InFact 2011-06 [16] 29.0% 26.8% 20.6% 5.1% 5.0% 6.0% 3.7% 3.8%
InFact 2011-07 [17] 24.9% 27.0% 16.9% 7.5% 5.7% 5.2% 6.1% 6.7%
TNS Gallup1 2011-07 [18] 35.4% 23.3% 13.6% 6.2% 4.7% 6.0% 5.9% 4.9%
Norstat 2011-08 [19] 34.2% 25.2% 16.0% 5.6% 4.5% 3.6% 5.0% 6.0%
TNS Gallup 2011-08 [20] 33.8% 24.9% 12.7% 4.9% 6.0% 6.8% 6.2% 4.7%
InFact 2011-08 [21] 31.6% 24.5% 17.5% 5.8% 5.1% 4.7% 5.5% 5.2%
Synovate 2011-08 [22] 34.0% 26.0% 16.0% 4.9% 6.1% 4.7% 3.9% 4.5%
InFact 2011-08 [23] 32.4% 25.0% 12.9% 5.7% 7.2% 6.3% 5.3% 5.2%
TNS Gallup 2011-08 [24] 30.9% 25.0% 14.0% 6.5% 6.5% 4.0% 6.3% 6.8%
TNS Gallup 2011-09 [25] 31.3% 27.3% 12.8% 5.9% 6.0% 4.5% 6.9% 4.5%
Synovate 2011-09 [26] 31.0% 25.1% 15.3% 6.2% 7.0% 4.4% 6.1% 4.9%
TNS Gallup 2011-09 [27] 31.9% 27.9% 12.8% 6.0% 6.5% 4.1% 6.7% 4.1%
Response 2011-09 [28] 32.1% 25.9% 16.3% 5.6% 5.9% 3.7% 5.5% 5.0%
TNS Gallup 2011-09 [29] 34.3% 27.1% 11.3% 5.2% 6.2% 3.6% 5.7% 6.6%
TNS Gallup 2011-09 [30] 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

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Municipal elections

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PartyVotes%Seats
Labour Party765,28931.663,373
Conservative Party676,05927.972,349
Progress Party274,55511.361,143
Centre Party163,2466.751,419
Liberal Party151,4066.26640
Christian Democratic Party134,6535.57656
Socialist Left Party98,2254.06364
Red Party37,2411.5457
Green Party21,7850.9018
Pensioners' Party19,8510.8250
Democrats in Norway4,3270.188
Coastal Party4,0700.1741
Others66,4492.75663
Total2,417,156100.0010,781
Registered voters/turnout3,799,742–
Source: Government of Norway, Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, TV2

County elections

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PartyVotes%Seats
Labour Party745,08733.19273
Conservative Party620,50427.64210
Progress Party263,91511.7696
Centre Party141,5146.3061
Christian Democratic Party129,9325.7947
Liberal Party127,2265.6746
Socialist Left Party96,8904.3234
Red Party38,7231.737
Green Party28,9521.292
Pensioners' Party20,8400.933
Coastal Party8,4460.383
Democrats in Norway6,0330.271
Sunnmøre List5,7180.253
Christian Unity Party4,8290.220
Byluftslisten1,4360.060
Communist Party1,2820.060
Sámi People's Party1,2330.051
Vestfoldlisten mot bomringer8440.040
Society Democrats7990.040
Society Party2890.010
Liberal People's Party2470.010
Total2,244,739100.00787
Registered voters/turnout3,789,746–
Source: Government of Norway

References

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  1. ^ a b "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. ^ a b c d 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.
  9. ^ "Partilederdebatt". 15 August 2015.
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