Norway's Ruling Labor Party Waning
OSLO, Norway (AP) - The political party that has dominated Norway for almost 80 years appeared headed for its worst national election in decades, with Norwegians angry about high taxes and poor public service despite vast oil wealth.
Official balloting was to begin Monday, but advance voting began Sunday in some townships and about 500,000 of the nation's roughly 3.3 million voters had already sent in postal ballots. Final results are expected Wednesday.
Opinion polls indicate that none of the three main blocs - the current Labor minority government, the Conservatives and a three-party moderate coalition - would get the majority needed to form a government.
The election could bring as many as nine parties to parliament, causing a scramble to form any government, the surveys show.
``This is incredibly exciting. It could be a real crossroads,'' said Jan Petersen, the Conservative leader who hopes to oust Labor with promises of tax cuts.
Labor has led Norway for most of the past 80 years, with a brief interlude in 1997 when a three-party moderate coalition led by Christian Democrat Kjell Magne Bondevik came into power.
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and his Labor Party ousted the coalition in a parliamentary showdown last year.
Labor headed into Monday's election in the seemingly enviable position of leading one of the world's richest nations. After Saudi Arabia, Norway is the world's second-largest oil exporter.
Norway, with some 4.5 million people, keeps billions of dollars a year of surplus revenue in the Government Petroleum Fund for foreign investment to avoid overheating the nation's economy.
But rival parties have blasted Labor for clinging to oil wealth, rather than using it to ease some of Europe highest taxes and to solve shortages in health care, education, child care and other services.
Labor Party leader and Foreign Minister Thorbjoern Jagland defended the system and said to use the wealth domestically would be dangerous for the national economy.
Some analysts say the outcome of Monday's election could influence prices at global gas pumps over the next four years.
Frank Aarebrot, a political analyst, said a parliament that endorses free spending of surplus oil revenue could contribute to higher world oil prices.
The oil fund is a now a long-term investment, more sensitive to interest rates than oil prices. But if a new government spends more oil wealth now, it may want higher oil prices to boost immediate profits, he said.
Ole Jacob Kvinnsland, an oil analyst, disagreed, saying ``the only way Norway can influence oil prices is by cutting production, and I don't think that is on the agenda.''
In a poll of 1,000 people published Sunday by the Oslo newspaper Aftenposten, 24.1 percent of those asked supported Labor. The party won 35 percent of the vote in 1997.
The poll listed the Conservatives with 21.9 percent and the Socialist Left soaring to 16 percent, compared with 6 percent in 1997.
The coalition of the Christian Democrats, Center and the Liberals had a total of 20.6 percent. The right-wing Party of Progress had 12.4 percent, with the rest supporting smaller parties.
The poll, which was conducted on Saturday, had a 2 percent to 3 percent margin of error.
Originally published September 09, 2001.
