1997 Norwegian parliamentary election

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15 September 1997

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All 165 seats in the Storting
83 seats needed for a majority

	First party	Second party	Third party

Candidate	Thorbjørn Jagland	Carl I. Hagen	Kjell Magne Bondevik
Party	Labour	Progress	Christian Democratic
Last election	36.91%, 67 seats	6.28%, 10 seats	7.88%, 13 seats
Seats won	65	25	25
Seat change	2	15	12
Popular vote	904,362	395,376	353,082
Percentage	35.00%	15.30%	13.66%
Swing	1.91 pp	9.02 pp	5.78 pp

	Fourth party	Fifth party	Sixth party

Leader	Jan Petersen	Anne Enger Lahnstein	Kristin Halvorsen
Party	Conservative	Centre	Socialist Left
Last election	17.04%, 28 seats	16.74%, 32 seats	7.91%, 13 seats
Seats won	23	11	9
Seat change	5	21	4
Popular vote	370,441	204,824	155,307
Percentage	14.34%	7.93%	6.01%
Swing	2.69 pp	8.81 pp	1.90 pp

	Seventh party	Eighth party

Leader	Lars Sponheim	Steinar Bastesen
Party	Liberal	Non-Partisan
Last election	3.61%, 1 seat	0.03%, 0 seats
Seats won	6	1
Seat change	5	1
Popular vote	115,077	9,135
Percentage	4.45%	0.36%
Swing	0.84 pp	0.33 pp

Results by county

Prime Minister before election

Thorbjørn Jagland
Labour

Prime Minister after election

Kjell Magne Bondevik
Christian Democratic

Parliamentary elections were held in Norway on 14 and 15 September 1997. Prior to the election Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland of the Labour Party had issued the 36.9 ultimatum declaring that the government would step down unless it gained 36.9% of the vote, the percentage gained by the Labour Party in 1993 under Gro Harlem Brundtland. Whilst Labour won a plurality of seats, they were unable to reach Jagland's 36.9% threshold, gaining 35% of the vote.

As a result of this, the Labour government stepped down, being replaced by a centrist coalition of the Christian People's Party, Liberal Party and the Centre Party, with Kjell Magne Bondevik being appointed Prime Minister, and confidence and supply support from the Conservative Party and the right-wing Progress Party.

Contesting parties

Name			Ideology	Position	Leader	1993 result
Name			Ideology	Position	Leader	Votes (%)	Seats
	Ap	Labour Party Arbeiderpartiet	Social democracy	Centre-left	Thorbjørn Jagland	36.9%	67 / 165
	H	Conservative Party Høyre	Liberal conservatism	Centre-right	Jan Petersen	17.0%	28 / 165
	Sp	Centre Party Senterpartiet	Agrarianism	Centre	Anne Enger Lahnstein	16.7%	32 / 165
	SV	Socialist Left Party Sosialistisk Venstreparti	Democratic socialism	Left-wing	Kristin Halvorsen	7.9%	13 / 165
	KrF	Christian Democratic Party Kristelig Folkeparti	Christian democracy	Centre to centre-right	Kjell Magne Bondevik	7.8%	13 / 165
	FrP	Progress Party Fremskrittspartiet	Conservative liberalism	Right-wing	Carl I. Hagen	6.2%	10 / 165
	V	Liberal Party Venstre	Social liberalism	Centre	Lars Sponheim	3.6%	1 / 165
	R	Red Electoral Alliance Rød Valgallianse	Communism	Far-left	Aslak Sira Myhre	1.0%	1 / 165

Campaign

Slogans

Party		Original slogan	English translation
	Labour Party	«Eldre og helse først!»	«Elderly and health first!»
	Centre Party	«Ja til samholds-Norge, nei til forskjellsNorge»	«Yes to a united Norway, no to a Norway of difference»
	Conservative Party	«Jan Petersen best som sjef/Høyre best for Norge.»	«Jan Petersen (Leader of party) best suited as boss/Conservative best suited for Norway»
	Socialist Left Party
	Christian Democratic Party	«Et varmere samfunn med kristne verdier»	«A warmer society with christian values»
	Progress Party	«Frihet under ansvar. Nei til redusering av forsvaret»	«Freedom under responsibility. No to reducing the army»
	Liberal party
	Red Electoral Alliance
Sources:

Debates

1997 Norwegian general election debates
Date	Organisers	P Present I Invitee N Non-invitee
		Ap	H	Sp	Sv	KrF	Frp	V	R	Refs
										Refs
12 Sep	NRK	P Thorbjørn Jagland, Hill-Marta Solberg	P Jan Petersen	P Anne Enger Lahnstein	P Kristin Halvorsen	P Valgerd Svarstad Haugland	P Carl I. Hagen	P Lars Sponheim	P Aslak Sira Myhre

Results



Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Labour Party	904,362	35.00	65	–2
	Progress Party	395,376	15.30	25	+15
	Conservative Party	370,441	14.34	23	–5
	Christian Democratic Party	353,082	13.66	25	+12
	Centre Party	204,824	7.93	11	–21
	Socialist Left Party	155,307	6.01	9	–4
	Liberal Party	115,077	4.45	6	+5
	Red Electoral Alliance	43,252	1.67	0	–1
	Pensioners' Party	16,031	0.62	0	0
	Non-Partisan Deputies	9,195	0.36	1	+1
	Environment Party The Greens	5,884	0.23	0	0
	Fatherland Party	3,805	0.15	0	0
	Natural Law Party	2,207	0.09	0	0
	Communist Party	1,979	0.08	0	0
	Christian Conservative Party	1,386	0.05	0	0
	New Future Coalition Party	491	0.02	0	0
	White Electoral Alliance	463	0.02	0	New
	Justice Party	281	0.01	0	New
	Liberal People's Party	258	0.01	0	0
	Children–Elderly	246	0.01	0	New
	Society Party	214	0.01	0	0
Total		2,584,161	100.00	165	0

Valid votes		2,584,161	99.63
Invalid/blank votes		9,508	0.37
Total votes		2,593,669	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		3,311,190	78.33
Source: Nohlen & Stöver, European Elections Database

Voter demographics

Cohort	Percentage of cohort voting for
	Ap	FrP	H	KrF	Sp	Sv	V	Others

Total vote	35.00%	15.30%	14.34%	13.66%	7.93%	6.01%	4.45%
Gender
Females	34.8%	12.3%	12.4%	17.6%	7.9%	8.1%	4.1%
Males	35.2%	18%	16%	10.2%	8%	4.2%	4.9%
Age
18–30 years old	30.5%	19.4%	11.4%	11.4%	6.2%	9.8%	4.9%
30-59 years old	35.5%	14.4%	16.5%	11.9%	7.9%	6.4%	5%
60 years old and older	37.8%	14.6%	10.9%	20.7%	9.8%	1.1%	2.2%
Work
low income	33.5%	17%	7%	16.4%	9.2%	6.8%	5%
Average income	36%	16.7%	11%	15.2%	9.2%	4.7%	3.8%
High income	35.4%	11.7%	27%	8.2%	4.2%	7.1%	5.2%
Education
Primary school	44.7%	15.3%	5.6%	15.3%	10.6%	2.5%	1.6%
High school	35.9%	17.2%	12.9%	13.8%	8.8%	4.8%	3.9%
University/college	26.3%	9.9%	24.3%	12%	4.1%	11.6%	7.7%

Source: Norwegian Institute for Social Research

Seat distribution

Constituency	Total seats	Seats won
		By party								By coalition
		Ap	FrP	KrF	H	Sp	SV	V	TVF	Borgerlig	Red-green

Akershus	14	5	2	1	3	1	1	1		8	6
Aust-Agder	4	2	1	1						2	2
Buskerud	7	4	1	1	1					3	4
Finnmark	4	2		1			1			1	3
Hedmark	9	4	1	1	1	1	1			4	5
Hordaland	16	5	2	3	2	1	1	2		10	6
Møre og Romsdal	10	3	2	2	1	1		1		7	3
Nord-Trøndelag	6	3	1	1		1				3	3
Nordland	12	5	1	2	1	1	1		1	6	6
Oppland	7	4	1	1		1				3	4
Oslo	17	6	3	1	4		2	1		9	8
Østfold	8	4	2	1	1					4	4
Rogaland	12	3	2	2	2	1	1	1		8	4
Sogn og Fjordane	5	2		1	1	1				3	2
Sør-Trøndelag	10	4	1	1	2	1	1			5	5
Telemark	6	3	1	1	1					3	3
Troms	6	2	1	1	1	1				4	2
Vest-Agder	5	1	1	2	1					4	1
Vestfold	7	3	2	1	1					4	3
Total	165	65	25	25	23	11	9	6	1	91	74
Source: Statistics Norway

References

Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1438 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
"Historiske slagord og plakater". Arbeiderpartiet (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 2024-03-19.
"Fremtiden, onsdag 10. september 1997". Fremtiden. pp. 20–21.
"Partilederdebatt". 15 August 2015.
"Kristelig Folkeparti - Valgforskning". Retrieved 16 February 2024.

v t e Elections and referendums in Norway
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