Oagal examines the election law in a series of articles.
“The current system for parliamentary elections is problematic because it gives the impression that it is possible to influence who gets elected, even though this is only a theoretical possibility,” the commission writes in section 1.2.1.3 Introducing individual candidate selection, page 23.
The reality in Norway today is that political organizations determine who appears on the party lists. The Election Law Commission describes the consequence with precision: the parliamentary electoral system gives the impression that we influence individual candidate selection.
The question is whether these political organizations also merely create the impression that candidates are placed on the lists through good internal democratic processes.
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Securing a top position on the lists in many electoral districts is in practice reserved for well-known candidates. This has led some candidates to move from the regions they represent to other electoral districts in order to secure a position. In Norway, geographic identity is so important that the Parliament chamber is arranged by county, not by party affiliation. Yet candidates still relocate to other districts to secure placement, thereby squeezing out local candidates.
Candidates also have their own spin doctors who run influence campaigns within the party organization. In reality, this is lobbying in the same way that actors with money and resources use to gain advantages at others’ expense in the political industry. Proposals to create a public lobbyist register have been rejected. No register exists for spin doctors who build positions at the expense of candidates without the same resources.
What do these spin doctors do for political candidates? They and the candidates spend long periods ingratiating themselves with powerful individuals and groups to secure the candidate’s position on the lists well before the party organizations’ so-called democratic bodies make their choices. In reality, small power elites in political parties determine who tops the party lists—often through a dirty game.
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These are the lists that the people of Norway vote on. These organizations are so dominant that the media is full of reports about their inner workings and power struggles.
Norwegian voters, then, do not elect political representatives but organizations. The system can therefore be described as organizationally representative. The composition of Parliament reflects the organizations.
This appears in the NOU on Free and Secret Elections.
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Even though the public commission establishes that voters have only a theoretical opportunity to influence who is elected, central public institutions still spread the falsehood that citizens choose the politicians.
Parliament writes on its website: “Through elections, the people appoint politicians who then make decisions on behalf of the people.” This is simply incorrect.
As a result, the following statement is also false: “Norway’s political system is a representative democracy: The people vote directly in elections, and the representatives elected to Parliament, county councils, and municipal councils govern on behalf of the people.”
There is nothing direct about how people choose members of Parliament in Norway.
There is nothing direct about how people choose their members of Parliament—only indirect influence, and that influence is subject to the organizational culture of political parties.
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