Social Democrats fell in Norwegian regional elections

Published 13 September 2023
- By Editorial Staff
Erna Solberg, leader of Høyre and Jonas Gahr Støre - leader of Arbeiderpartiets and Norways Prime Minister.

The conservative Høyre (H) emerged as the big winner in the municipal elections in Norway. The party overtook the social democratic Arbeiderpartiet (Ap), which had previously received the most votes in the country.

Municipal and county elections were held in Norway on Sunday. Previously, the social democratic Arbeiderpartiet (Ap) had the most support in the Norwegian regions, but polls suggested a strong rise for the conservative Høyre (H), among others.

Høyre also became the largest party with 25.9 percent in the municipal elections, an increase of 5.8 percent compared to the last election in 2019. In the county elections, the party ended up with 25.6 percent, an increase of 6.1 percent, reports tax-funded NRK.

Arbeiderpartiet instead went back three percentage points in the Fylketing election and received 21.9 percent of Norwegians’ votes. In the municipal elections, the party received 21.7 percent, a decrease of 3.1 percent compared to 2019. In third place comes the Progress Party (FRP) with 11.4 percent and the Center Party (SP) next with 8.2 percent.

Arbeiderpartiet is still the largest party in most municipalities, 121, with Høyre taking second place with 84 municipalities.

It is still unclear how many votes have gone to the big upstart Alliance, which is currently still included in “other parties” with 9.9 percent in the counties and 9.6 percent in the municipalities.

How to view the results

For the municipal elections you can see the vote count here, and for the counties here.

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