2005 Norwegian parliamentary election
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A general election to the Storting, the parliament of Norway, was held on 12 September 2005. All 169 seats were contested: an increase of four from the previous election.
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. [1]
Background
Before the election, Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik led a coalition government consisting of the Conservative Party, Christian People's Party (which supplied the prime minister) and the Liberals, 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 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.
Results
With votes counted in 430 out of 433 municipalities, 87 seats were won by the Red-Green Coalition and 82 by the coalition goverment and the Progress Party.
| Party | Vote | Seats | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | ± | total | ± | ||
| File:Arbeiderpartiet-logo.png | Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) | 32.7 | +8.4 | 61 | +18 |
| File:Fremskrittspartiet Norway.png | Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet) | 22.0 | +7.4 | 38 | +12 |
| File:Hoyre-logo.png | Conservative Party (Høyre) | 14.1 | −7.1 | 23 | −15 |
| File:SV-logo.png | Socialist Left Party (Sosialistisk Venstreparti) | 8.8 | −3.8 | 15 | −8 |
| File:KrF logo.png | Christian People's Party (Kristelig Folkeparti) | 6.8 | −5.6 | 11 | −11 |
| File:Senterpartiet.png | Centre Party (Senterpartiet) | 6.5 | +0.9 | 11 | +1 |
| File:Venstre Norway.png | Liberal Party (Venstre) | 5.9 | +2.0 | 10 | +8 |
|
Red Electoral Alliance (Rød Valgallianse) | 1.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| File:Coastal Party logo.png | Coastal Party (Kystpartiet) | 0.8 | −0.9 | 0 | −1 |
| Others | 1.2 | 0 | |||
| Total | 100% | 169 | |||
Turnout was at 76.6%
Winners
- The red-green coalition is the winner of the election, and will form a majority government, almost certainly with Jens Stoltenberg as prime minister.
- The Norwegian Labour Party obtains 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 obtains its best result ever, surpassing the Conservatives by a large margin and becoming almost as large as the parties in the Bondevik goverment together.
- The Liberal Party gains a substantial amount of seats in its most successful election since 1965. The large number of additional seats won with only 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).
Losers
- The right-wing suffers a defeat well beyond its numbers, since almost half of its votes are for the Progress party, that has been able to only offer external support to the Bondevik government; this because the other parties shunned any possible formal inclusion in the government coalition, because of the low consideration in which they hold the Progress Party.
- The Socialist Left 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, largely surpassed by the Progress Party.
- The Christian Democratic Party is almost halved, 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.
References
- 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.
- Updated results in English
| Preceded by 2001 |
Elections in Norway | Succeeded by 2009 |