{"id":4696,"date":"2024-09-21T06:23:44","date_gmt":"2024-09-21T04:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oagal.com\/uncategorized\/parliament-no-to-personal-votes-allows-for-counties-and-municipalities\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T10:02:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T09:02:53","slug":"norwegian-parliament-no-to-personal-votes-allows-for-counties-and-municipalities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oagal.com\/en\/participation\/organizationally-representative-governance\/norwegian-parliament-no-to-personal-votes-allows-for-counties-and-municipalities\/","title":{"rendered":"The Norwegian parliament rejects personal votes for itself but allows them for counties and municipalities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n

After the new Norwegian Election Act took effect on May 1, 2024, it became impossible to cast additional personal votes in parliamentary elections. Among the excuses offered was that the old arrangement did not function well. The Norwegian Parliament therefore chose to abolish the system rather than strengthen it \u2013 in direct contradiction to the recommendations of the Election Law Commission<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Desire for an organization-representative system<\/h3>\n

The reality is that party organizations want full control over which individuals are given the opportunity to be elected to the Storting. Being a politician today is about pursuing a career and defending a party organization\u2019s position, rather than electing capable representatives for citizens, which is the underlying principle of representative democracy. The parties are working a complex puzzle and even relocate party members on paper to other electoral districts in order to strengthen the prospects of certain candidacies.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong> Overriding parliamentary constituencies reveals a society beyond democratic control<\/a><\/p>\n

An organization-representative system of governance has major implications compared with a system that balances direct democracy and representative democracy. When organizations monopolize personal selection, the national assembly will be composed of members who represent organizations rather than the people. Since the national assembly is also the legislative body, this will influence the shaping of laws, with a high likelihood that legislation will not reflect citizens\u2019 sense of justice. Given that the composition of public committees is also dominated by the political industry, this may undermine legal certainty.<\/p>\n

Norway has a simple electoral system in which parties present lists in electoral districts, meaning that citizens have only this single opportunity to influence the composition of the Storting.<\/p>\n

In strong democracies such as New Zealand<\/a>, however, elections are based on party lists combined with direct personal voting. In such democracies, the population is therefore able to elect representatives they actually want to represent them. These may be strong politicians who have fallen out of favor within their parties and fail to secure top positions on party lists. Such candidates can then avoid having to \u201cpaper-relocate\u201d to other electoral districts where a top list position might be more attainable.<\/p>\n

This can also open the door to individuals who are not career politicians \u2013 a primary qualification in Norway today \u2013 but who nonetheless wish to bring their background and life experience into a position of trust on behalf of the voters in their constituency.<\/p>\n

Narrow personal-voting options<\/h3>\n

The table shows the limited personal-voting options available to the Norwegian public at the ballot box after the new Election Act entered into force on May 1, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t

\n<\/th>		Stortinget<\/th>Fylkestinget<\/th>Kommunestyrer<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Stryke kandidat<\/td>Nei<\/td>Nei<\/td>Nei<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ekstra personstemme<\/td>Nei<\/td>Ja <\/td>Ja<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Oppf\u00f8re fra annen liste<\/td>Nei<\/td>Ja<\/td>Ja<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Oppf\u00f8re kandidater
\nuten liste<\/td>		Nei<\/td>Nei<\/td>Nei<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the new Norwegian Election Act took effect on May 1, 2024, it became impossible to cast additional personal votes in parliamentary elections. Among the excuses offered was that the old arrangement did not function well. The Norwegian Parliament therefore chose to abolish the system rather than strengthen it \u2013 in direct contradiction to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[264,240,289],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-organizationally-representative-governance","category-participation","category-rule-of-law","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nNorwegian parliament-no to personal votes \u2022 Only for municipalities and counties<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Norwegian parliament declines personal votes for itself. In doing so, the party organizations takes completely over the rule\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oagal.com\/en\/participation\/organizationally-representative-governance\/norwegian-parliament-no-to-personal-votes-allows-for-counties-and-municipalities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Norwegian parliament-no to personal votes \u2022 Only for municipalities and counties\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Norwegian parliament declines personal votes for itself. In doing so, the party organizations takes completely over the rule\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.oagal.com\/en\/participation\/organizationally-representative-governance\/norwegian-parliament-no-to-personal-votes-allows-for-counties-and-municipalities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Folket trenger reelt demokrati\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/oagalpeople\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-21T04:23:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-15T09:02:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.oagal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Spindelvev.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"810\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Redaksjonen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@oagalpeople\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@oagalpeople\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Redaksjonen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Norwegian parliament-no to personal votes \u2022 Only for municipalities and counties","description":"Norwegian parliament declines personal votes for itself. 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