Elec­tion of the new City Coun­cil (Lokals­ty­re) in Lon­gye­ar­by­en

Sun­day the 4th and Mon­day the 5th of Octo­ber were elec­tion days in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. For the upco­ming four years the 15 mem­bers of the new City Coun­cil (Lokals­ty­re) were elec­ted. The City Coun­cil is the supre­me organ of the local govern­ment in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. 1651 elec­to­ra­tes were entit­led to vote, having the choice bet­ween four par­ties and their can­di­da­tes. The coun­ting of votes led to the fol­lo­wing preli­mi­na­ry result:

1006 valid votes were cast, accor­ding to a voter par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on of 60.93 % (2011: 56.56 %). For the cal­cu­la­ti­on of the seats, both the votes for the sin­gle can­di­da­tes and for the par­ties in total are rele­vant.

For the Arbei­der­par­tiet this result is a set­back. With 7 seats so far it was the stron­gest par­ty in the pre­sent City Coun­cil pro­vi­ding the head of the local govern­ment in Lon­gye­ar­by­en, Chris­tin Kris­toff­er­sen. Even in the recent sur­vey from Sep­tem­ber the Arbei­der­par­tiet was cle­ar­ly ahead with 56.5 % of the votes and 9 seats. Here the Høy­re achie­ved only 21 % (3 seats), the Venst­re 12.9 % (2 seats) and the green MDG 9.7 % (1 seat). Howe­ver, 45 % of the respond­ents ans­we­red that they still were unde­ci­ded, would not vote or didn´t want to ans­wer. Kris­toff­er­sen had announ­ced ear­lier that she would not can­di­da­te again for ano­ther peri­od. This time Arild Olsen is top can­di­da­te of the Arbei­der­par­tiet.

The Høy­re had 3 seats in the Coun­cil so far and was the 2nd stron­gest par­ty after the Arbei­der­par­tiet. Now the Con­ser­va­ti­ves are see­ing an oppor­tu­ni­ty to defi­ne the poli­tics of the upco­ming four years in Lon­gye­ar­by­en in a coali­ti­on with the Venst­re and to install their top can­di­ta­de Tor­ge­ir Prytz as head of the local govern­ment. Both par­ties alre­a­dy announ­ced the inten­ti­on to go into coali­ti­on nego­tia­ti­ons. Tog­e­ther they would have a majo­ri­ty of 1 seat in the Coun­cil. Such a coali­ti­on might sound stran­ge out­side of Nor­way (Høy­re means ‚right-wing‘ and Venst­re ‚left-wing‘). But in the Nor­we­gi­an poli­ti­cal land­scape the­se two par­ties are not too far away from each other (see abo­ve, Venst­re is not a socia­list or com­mu­nist par­ty as the name might sug­gest).

Venst­re and the green MDG were not repre­sen­ted in the City Coun­cil befo­re. Espe­ci­al­ly for the MDG the repre­sen­ta­ti­on in the Coun­cil is a signi­fi­cant suc­cess. With 13.5 % of the votes and 2 seats in the Coun­cil the group in Lon­gye­ar­by­en would be the most suc­cessful group of the envi­ron­men­tal par­ty in who­le Nor­way so far. The top can­di­da­te of the MDG Hel­ga Bårds­dat­ter Kris­ti­an­sen alre­a­dy pro­mi­sed an acti­ve oppo­si­ti­on poli­cy.

Source: Lokals­ty­re, Sval­bard­pos­ten

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