Online Encyclopedia Search Tool

Your Online Encyclopedia

 

Online Encylopedia and Dictionary Research Site

Online Encyclopedia Free Search Online Encyclopedia Search    Online Encyclopedia Browse    welcome to our free dictionary for your research of every kind

Online Encyclopedia



Elections in Norway

In Norway, elections are held every second year, changing between elections for the Parliament and local elections both of which are held on a 4-yearly basis.

Suffrage is universal from the year a person turns 18 years old, even if the person turns 18 later in the year the election is held. Only Norwegian citizens can vote in the Parliamentary elections, but foreign workers that have lived in Norway for three years continuously can vote in the local elections.

Women's suffrage was adopted in 1913.

Contents

Local elections

The local elections are two separate elections held at the same time. The first election is the county municipality election, where they elect politicians to the County Council . The second election is the municipality election, where they elect politicians to the municipality council .

Parliamentary elections

Norway is divided in 19 counties, and each county is a constituency in the election. Each county elects a preselected number of seats in the Parliament (Stortinget) based mainly on the population and geographical area of the county. This practice has been criticised because in some larger counties with sparse population a single vote counts more than in other tighter populated counties. Other again claim that counties with a scattered and sparse population and who are situated far away the central administration in Oslo should have a stronger representation in the Parliament. In the more recent elections a vote in Finnmark county has counted twice as much as in Akershus county or Oslo county.

After the votes are counted and the members of the Parliament are designated their respective seats of their county, levelling seats are divided to parties who got fewer seat than their election result percentage would suggest. Only parties with more than 4% of the votes on a national basis are entitled levelling seats due to the border limit. The practice of levelling seats was adopted in 1989.


The current distribution of the seats of the parliament by county (165 in total):

Results

Related topics

Last updated: 10-30-2004 18:11:40