General Elections

There are 169 seats or members of the Storting and general elections are held every four years. The Storting can not be dissolved and there is no opportunity to call for new elections outside the general election year. There are no by-elections.

Every Norwegian citizen aged 18 or older by the end of the election year has the right to vote at the election. Norway practices universal suffrage. Everyone who is entitled to vote and who has lived in Norway for the last 10 years is eligible to be voted into the Storting with the exception of civil servants and people working in the Foreign Service.

The Norwegian electoral system is based on the principle of direct election and proportional representation, and voting is by secret ballot. The ballot is a vote for a list of representatives from a political party and the names on the party list are candidates representing that particular party. These candidates have been chosen on the nomination conventions of each party.

There are 19 counties in Norway which constitute the constituencies. These are divided into polling districts where the voters come to take ballot. The 19 constituencies have different numbers of seats in the Storting according to their size and population.

Each consituency has a seat reserved as an "additional seat". The additional seats are assigned to even out discrepancies between the number of votes received and the number of seats in the Storting. In order to compete for an additional seat, the parties must optain more than 4% of the national vote. By comparing the actual ditribution of seats with what would have been the case if the country was one big constituency, one can make out which parties are underrepresented. These parties are awarded additional seats in the constituencies were they were nearest to win an ordinary seat.

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Last updated 21.11.2005