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2023 Norwegian local elections
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2023 Norwegian local elections
The 2023 Norwegian local elections were held on 11 September 2023. Voters elected representatives to municipal and county councils, which are responsible for education, public transportation, healthcare, elderly care, waste disposal, the levy of certain taxes, and more. All council seats were up for election across the 15 counties and 357 municipalities of Norway.
The previous local elections, held in September 2019, resulted in a nationwide victory for the centre-left parties, known as the red-green coalition. The five red-green parties, namely the Labour, Centre, Green, Socialist Left, and Red parties, secured around 56% of the national popular vote in the municipal elections at that time. Meanwhile, the then-ruling majority in the Storting, made up of the Conservative, Progress, Christian Democratic, and Liberal parties, scored roughly 36% nationally. The red-greens also retained control of the major cities of Oslo, Bergen, and Trondheim. In the 2023 elections, incumbent red-green mayors were seeking to defend these seats from centre-right challengers, as opinion polls showed the centre-right bloc rebounding.
The election resulted in the Conservative Party of opposition leader Erna Solberg emerging as the largest party nationwide, taking just under 26% of the vote. This marked the first time since the 1924 Norwegian parliamentary election that the Conservatives had come in first place in a national election. It also brought to an end the Labour Party's 96-year continuous streak as Norway's largest political party, which began with the elections of 1927 and was a defining feature of Norway's political landscape for most of the 20th and early 21st centuries. In addition, the right-wing Progress Party of Sylvi Listhaug regained its position as the country's third largest party, after having fallen behind Trygve Slagsvold Vedum's Centre Party in 2019. Overall, the vote was described as a realignment of the country's political scene, with the centre-right bloc emerging victorious nationally with around 46% of the vote in the municipal elections, against approximately 44% for the red-green parties. A number of major cities previously controlled by the Labour Party and its allies, including the capital city of Oslo, changed hands in this election, electing new centre-right mayors.
Local administration in Norway is undertaken by the country's subnational divisions, the first-level counties (fylkeskommune) and the second-level municipalities (kommune). Norway is a unitary state, meaning that local governments exert little autonomy beyond what is granted to them by the central Government of Norway. However, each county and municipality is responsible for day-to-day management of various services such as lower-level education, public transportation, and healthcare. Some municipalities also operate with a property tax which funds the municipalities directly, in addition to any funding received from the central government.
Counties and municipalities in Norway are administered by directly elected councils, called county councils (fylkesting) and municipal councils (kommunestyre). These are up for election every four years, midway through the term of the Storting, the parliament of Norway. These councils elect a county mayor (fylkesordfører) or a mayor (ordfører) who leads council sessions and partakes in the administration of the county or municipality. On the municipal level, the mayor does not need to maintain the confidence of the council for the duration of the four-year term, and once elected, they remain in their position for the remainder of the term.
A number of larger cities, including Oslo and Bergen, operate with an alternative system of "city parliamentarism" (byparlamentarisme), under which the city's elected administration is headed by a governing mayor (byrådsleder), who leads a cabinet consisting of several officials in a model mirroring the system used for national government. Under this model, an incumbent administration requires the confidence of the local council throughout their term; should they lose it, they may be forced to resign so that a new administration with the confidence of the council can take office. In 2021, the city administration of Oslo led by Raymond Johansen lost a vote of no confidence lodged against one of its officials, Lan Marie Berg, and the entire administration subsequently resigned. However, Johansen was able to resume his position anew shortly thereafter, forming a new administration without Berg and with majority support in the council.
The county and municipal councils are elected by proportional representation, using a modified variant of the Sainte-Laguë method, for fixed terms of four years. Elections are always held in the first half of September, and any citizen of Norway who turns 18 years of age by the end of the calendar year is eligible to vote, meaning that 17-year-olds may vote as long as they turn 18 before 31 December. In addition, residents of Norway who are citizens of one of the other Nordic countries, namely Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, and Finland may vote provided they obtained a residency permit before 30 June of the election year. Citizens of non-Nordic countries may vote provided they have held residency and resided in Norway uninterrupted for at least three consecutive years leading up to election day.
Norwegian elections ordinarily allow for advance voting or early voting, and in the 2023 local elections, this was possible in the period from 3 July until 9 August. Municipalities typically allocate public buildings such as town halls, public libraries, and schools for advance voting. When voting, voters choose at most one electoral list for each of the county and municipal councils; the voter may select the ballots of two different parties if they wish. Once the polls close, the ballots are counted immediately, and projections and results are typically broadcast on most major Norwegian television networks throughout election night. Seats are awarded proportionally to the political parties and lists both on the county and municipal level. After the election, local political leaders negotiate to form local administrations, which may be one-party or multi-party constellations depending on the composition of the council.
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2023 Norwegian local elections
The 2023 Norwegian local elections were held on 11 September 2023. Voters elected representatives to municipal and county councils, which are responsible for education, public transportation, healthcare, elderly care, waste disposal, the levy of certain taxes, and more. All council seats were up for election across the 15 counties and 357 municipalities of Norway.
The previous local elections, held in September 2019, resulted in a nationwide victory for the centre-left parties, known as the red-green coalition. The five red-green parties, namely the Labour, Centre, Green, Socialist Left, and Red parties, secured around 56% of the national popular vote in the municipal elections at that time. Meanwhile, the then-ruling majority in the Storting, made up of the Conservative, Progress, Christian Democratic, and Liberal parties, scored roughly 36% nationally. The red-greens also retained control of the major cities of Oslo, Bergen, and Trondheim. In the 2023 elections, incumbent red-green mayors were seeking to defend these seats from centre-right challengers, as opinion polls showed the centre-right bloc rebounding.
The election resulted in the Conservative Party of opposition leader Erna Solberg emerging as the largest party nationwide, taking just under 26% of the vote. This marked the first time since the 1924 Norwegian parliamentary election that the Conservatives had come in first place in a national election. It also brought to an end the Labour Party's 96-year continuous streak as Norway's largest political party, which began with the elections of 1927 and was a defining feature of Norway's political landscape for most of the 20th and early 21st centuries. In addition, the right-wing Progress Party of Sylvi Listhaug regained its position as the country's third largest party, after having fallen behind Trygve Slagsvold Vedum's Centre Party in 2019. Overall, the vote was described as a realignment of the country's political scene, with the centre-right bloc emerging victorious nationally with around 46% of the vote in the municipal elections, against approximately 44% for the red-green parties. A number of major cities previously controlled by the Labour Party and its allies, including the capital city of Oslo, changed hands in this election, electing new centre-right mayors.
Local administration in Norway is undertaken by the country's subnational divisions, the first-level counties (fylkeskommune) and the second-level municipalities (kommune). Norway is a unitary state, meaning that local governments exert little autonomy beyond what is granted to them by the central Government of Norway. However, each county and municipality is responsible for day-to-day management of various services such as lower-level education, public transportation, and healthcare. Some municipalities also operate with a property tax which funds the municipalities directly, in addition to any funding received from the central government.
Counties and municipalities in Norway are administered by directly elected councils, called county councils (fylkesting) and municipal councils (kommunestyre). These are up for election every four years, midway through the term of the Storting, the parliament of Norway. These councils elect a county mayor (fylkesordfører) or a mayor (ordfører) who leads council sessions and partakes in the administration of the county or municipality. On the municipal level, the mayor does not need to maintain the confidence of the council for the duration of the four-year term, and once elected, they remain in their position for the remainder of the term.
A number of larger cities, including Oslo and Bergen, operate with an alternative system of "city parliamentarism" (byparlamentarisme), under which the city's elected administration is headed by a governing mayor (byrådsleder), who leads a cabinet consisting of several officials in a model mirroring the system used for national government. Under this model, an incumbent administration requires the confidence of the local council throughout their term; should they lose it, they may be forced to resign so that a new administration with the confidence of the council can take office. In 2021, the city administration of Oslo led by Raymond Johansen lost a vote of no confidence lodged against one of its officials, Lan Marie Berg, and the entire administration subsequently resigned. However, Johansen was able to resume his position anew shortly thereafter, forming a new administration without Berg and with majority support in the council.
The county and municipal councils are elected by proportional representation, using a modified variant of the Sainte-Laguë method, for fixed terms of four years. Elections are always held in the first half of September, and any citizen of Norway who turns 18 years of age by the end of the calendar year is eligible to vote, meaning that 17-year-olds may vote as long as they turn 18 before 31 December. In addition, residents of Norway who are citizens of one of the other Nordic countries, namely Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, and Finland may vote provided they obtained a residency permit before 30 June of the election year. Citizens of non-Nordic countries may vote provided they have held residency and resided in Norway uninterrupted for at least three consecutive years leading up to election day.
Norwegian elections ordinarily allow for advance voting or early voting, and in the 2023 local elections, this was possible in the period from 3 July until 9 August. Municipalities typically allocate public buildings such as town halls, public libraries, and schools for advance voting. When voting, voters choose at most one electoral list for each of the county and municipal councils; the voter may select the ballots of two different parties if they wish. Once the polls close, the ballots are counted immediately, and projections and results are typically broadcast on most major Norwegian television networks throughout election night. Seats are awarded proportionally to the political parties and lists both on the county and municipal level. After the election, local political leaders negotiate to form local administrations, which may be one-party or multi-party constellations depending on the composition of the council.
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